It was almost midnight when the final whistle blew. After 120 minutes of intense football under the floodlights of Kendhikulhudhoo stadium, the final game was still undecided; it had ended in a 3–3 stalemate.

The final game was dragged on into penalties. After a suspenseful shootout, Kendhikulhudhoo’s star-studded Wind Warriors defended the title, and for a second year, Naifaru Chelsea returned home to Lhaviyani with just a silver medal.

That was the culmination of this year’s The Mangrove Island Football Championship (TMIFC), a tournament that has, over the past four years, grown into one of the biggest and most popular of its kind in the Maldives.

It was the last night of April. Weeks before that, the FAM had, for the fourth time, postponed the restart of the Dhivehi Premier League. First-division players desperate for some game time were forced once again, as they had over the past eighteen months, to depend on island-based football tournaments.

At a time when uncertainty about their careers had increased more than ever, championships like TMIFC have taken on a new kind of relevance for footballers, as reminders of what the game can still look like when the people closest to it are the ones in charge.

Ibrahim Mahudhee puts on his trademark celebration after scoring for Maalhendhoo FC

In the two editions of the championship held within the seemingly never-ending hiatus of FAM’s club football, Kendhikulhudhoo’s TMIFC has become a tournament that top players can rely on to be everything they missed about football in Male’.

The prize money of the tournament had exponentially increased in the past three years to the extent that it has now outgrown all other island-based competitions. Today, TMIFC has established itself as one of the most compelling football projects outside the capital.

Kendhikulhudhoo Council staff, the TMIFC organizers at the closing ceremony

A Tournament Growing in Confidence

In 2022, the champion team of TMIFC, Comets, walked away with MVR 50,000. The following year, that figure rose to 75,000. This year, they champions Wind Warriors took home MVR 150,000, making TMIFC one of the most financially rewarding tournaments in atoll football history.

And the organizers say they’re far from done: next year, the prize pool will increase again, to a total of MVR 400,000, with 300,000 just for the winners.

“The scale we’ve reached is largely because of the trust we’ve built with our partners. And the way we organize it — we take it seriously,” says Mohamed Thahleel (Thahoo), a member of the TMIFC organizing committee.

“Our aim is to show that the revival of Maldivian football can be driven from outside the Male-based league system” – Thahoo

Ahmed Jaushan Abdhulla, a Gold Cup winner with Eydhafushi, earned this TMIFC’s promising player award playing for Naifaru Chelsea

TMIFC is already distinct in structure. The tournament doesn’t charge a participation fee, and it had sent an open invitation to football clubs from across the country. Many of the participant teams are from outside of the island, mostly from neighboring islands of Noonu. Most teams were able to field line-ups made up of some of the most sought-after players in the nation.

Logistics and Hospitality

Organizing an open tournament in an island setting comes with its challenges. But Kendhikulhudhoo seems to have leaned into its identity as a host. And the feedback from those involved are almost entirely positive, especially around travel and accomodation.

“We assign arrival coordinators for every team,” says Thahoo. “They meet them at the harbor, escort them, handle requests. Some players have said it feels like a butler service” says Thahoo.

The goal is to make teams want to come back, and so far, they do. Several teams within noonu atoll, and some from outside the atoll like Naifaru Chelsea, have returned year after year, drawn by both the competitive level and the way the island handles the logistics.

Over the short history of the tournament, TMIFC’s sponsors had included Cuarzo – a textile distributor – and other big brands like Dhiraagu and Sonee Sports.

This year’s closing ceremony embraced a local symbol — the island’s wooden bridge that stretches across its mangroves. It was an expression of how the tournament is trying to present Kendhikulhudhoo not just as a football island, but a tourism destination, says Thahoo.

To make the celebrations more convenient for the champions — and to properly acknowledge the contributors, Kendhikulhudhoo hosts a separate closing ceremony for the partners of TMIFC, a gesture rarely seen at this level of football.

From the perspective of sports media, we at Sidibari found that TMIFC is atoll-football at its best; in terms of both organizing of the tournament, and that of the quality of players. The organizing team are well-versed in their roles. They are aware of the evolving landscape of sports marketing, and did not disappoint at all in coordinating on the PR side of things.

When asked about the fact that many national-level players are in most TMIFC teams, and that some might question whether there’s room left for the teenagers of mangrove island to get some game time, Thahoo said that it was not a real problem for the up-and-coming players of the island.

“If anything, our kids are more excited now. They watch these players closely. They call each other by the names of the stars they see on the pitch; ‘Yaanu’, ‘Jeynne’, names like that,” he says. “It’s creating energy.”

“The kids draw inspiration from the talent they get to see every year; they call each other by names of the players they see on the pitch”

The island is preparing to host a separate end-of-year tournament focused specifically on giving more game time to the younger footballers from within the island. It’s a reminder that for all its growing profile, TMIFC hasn’t forgotten where it started.

Even before the rebranding to TMIFC, Kendhikulhudhoo was known to host tournaments with big prize pools. A few years ago, the island staged the Siyam-Mauroof Super Cup, a one-off competition that offered a then-unprecedented MVR 600,000 to the winner.

The goal of the Kendhikulhudhoo Council is to provide an avenue of substance and meaning, for players to test out their limits beyond the Male’ clubs with which they formally signed with, says Thahoo.

A month since the Mangrove Finals, the Dhivehi Premier League still remains suspended, and no one really knows exactly when, or in what shape, it will return.

The past month had finally seen club football return to Galolhu Stadium via the FAM League Cup. The transitional tournament might have helped first division players regroup and start rebuilding their form with the clubs, but there still lies the uncertainty around the football season.

TMIFC has become a sanctuary for players caught in the fog of this uncertainty. Just as the other island-based football tournaments that are also gaining both prestige and popularity, Kendhikulhudhoo offered what the supposed guardians of Maldivian football no longer guaranteed; An avenue for players to sustain their skills; a sense of hope that not all is lost.

From the spectator’s perspective, this may feel like just another island tournament. But in the absence of a functioning national league, it feels like something more: a decentralized version of football that’s moving forward, even when the system is stuck.

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