Sidibari
Football advocacy and lobby group ‘Save FAM’ has advocated for FAM congress to provide equal representation for the nine geographical zones of the association.
Following a meeting with the normalization committee on Wednesday, former Secretary General of FAM, Shah Ismail, reiterated in an interview with Mihaaru about the necessity of having delegates from the nine zones attend the congress.
As per Article 22 of the FAM Statutes, the allocation of the delegates representing the Members of the FAM is as follows:
a) For each of the 8 clubs of the 1st Division: two Congress delegates with each one vote
b) For each of the 10 clubs of the 2nd Division: one Congress delegate with one vote
c) For each of the nine zones. one Congress delegate with one vote
Shah cited the FAM’s Articles of Association, pointing out that, although the clause about “interest groups” had been amended from the Dhivehi version, what holds legitimacy in front of FIFA is the English version of the AoA.
“…In the event of any divergence between the interpretations of texts in different languages, the text written in English shall be regarded as authoritative” – Article 8, Statutes of the Football Association of Maldives
Save FAM’s advocates also point to Article 10 (c) which gives legitimacy to the 9 zones as “members of FAM” alongside eight first division clubs and ten second division clubs.
“The FAM have been hijacked by a group of dominant clubs from a single Zone” writes Hamid Abdulghafoor, one of the leaders of the ‘Save FAM’ group, and former General Secretary of FAM.
“This discrimination between Male’ and Raajethere’ has been perpetrated through history by a lingering old Maldivian establishment. There are eight other football Zones recognized by the FIFA-endorsed statutes (of FAM). But these eight Zones have been excluded from the congress by the Male’ Zone clubs” – Hamid Abdhulghafoor
Hamid also scrutinized the distribution of MVR one million each to top-flight clubs earlier this year, after six of the 10 clubs refused to participate in the ad-hoc tournament of FAM. He said that participation “cannot be used as a bargaining chip” by the clubs.
Earlier this week, a motion calling for the creation of four regional associations was submitted by TC Sports Club.
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FAM is planning to hold an Extra Ordinary Congress next month, in which the Articles will be debated and amended. The pending of these amendments are the primary reason for the postponement of the Dhivehi Premier League, which was scheduled to start on the second week of this April.
