Bassam registers to attend FIFA congress while on travel ban

President of Football Association of Maldives (FAM), Bassam Adeel Jaleel, whose passport has been confiscated with a travel ban enforced over him following the ongoing investigation into allegations of misappropriating FAM's funds has registered to attend the FIFA congress.

FIFA is hosting its 74th congress in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand. FIFA predicts that over 3,000 representatives from 211 member states will attend the congress slated for Friday, May 17.

Member states will be requested to vote in order to determine the host country for the 2027 Women's World Cup during this congress as well.

The Maldivian delegation set to represent the country during the congress is President of FAM Bassam Adeel Jaleel, the Vice President of Association, Ali Umar and Acting General Secretary of FAM, Mohamed Jaushan Shareef.

"Bassam (if permitted to travel), Ali Umar and I," said Jaushan in response to a question inquiring the representatives for Maldives during the FIFA congress.

Prior to the FIFA congress, AFC is set to hold their congress this Thursday, also in Thailand. The same delegation will represent the Maldives for this congress as well.

Bassam had previously filed an appeal to the Criminal Court, requesting to lift his travel ban under claims of traveling to Qatar for another AFC meeting, however, the court had decided not to return his passport on February.

His passport was confiscated by Maldives Immigration for a duration of six months upon the request of the Police earlier in December.

While a case has been filed against Bassam over allegations of misappropriating the Association's funds, Police are currently looking into other cases related to Bassam as well.

During the investigation initiated by Police last October, the office of FAM was also raided under the directive of Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem.