Former football star Ali Umar elected as SAFF Vice President

Former Maldivian football star and Vice President of the Football Association of Maldives (FAM), Ali Umar, has been elected as the new Vice President of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), the main football organization in the South Asian region.

Ali Umar, who previously represented the Maldives on the SAFF Executive Committee, has been elected as the organization's Vice President for the 2023-2027 term. Along with Umar, Nepal's Sundar Narsingh Joshi has also been appointed as SAFF's Vice President.

The post of Vice-President of the federation had been vacant since the SAFF congress held last year. Ali Umar and Joshi were elected at this year's congress held on Saturday, May 6, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

During Saturday’s congress, SAFF nominated the General Manager of All India Football Federation (AIFF) Shaji Prabhakaran as the new SAFF representative at the AFC Executive Committee.

Ali Umar is widely considered as one of the best forward attackers in the Maldivian football scene. He played for the national team from 1999 until 2013, and in 2003, his squad finished as runners-up at the SAFF Championship. He was also a substitute player on the national team when Maldives won its first regional gold medal in 2008.

Umar began his football career in 1997 with Youth Sports Club, and his skills on the pitch earned him opportunities to play for major local teams such as Valencia FC, IFC, New Radiant Sports Club, and VB Sports Club.

He retired from football in 2013, having won all the domestic tournaments with his team, New Radiant, that year. Umar had also scored two goals for the national team at the group stage matches of the 2013 AFC Cup.

Umar received the Best Footballer of the Year award at the FAM Awards 2006 and was also named the "No.1 Maldivian Footballer" by daily news "Haveeru." Additionally, he won the Golden Boot for scoring the highest number of goals that year. After retiring from football, Ali served as vice-president of the FAM when Sri Lanka's number one striker Ahmed Thorig (Tom) was president. However, he resigned due to differences of opinion among the leadership and was appointed to the FAM Executive Committee in the first term of Bassam Adil Jalil.

Following his retirement from active football, Umar served as the Vice President of Football Association of Maldives (FAM) during Ahmed Thoriq’s (Tom) tenure as the association’s President. However, Umar had resigned due to differences with the then FAM leadership. He was later appointed to the FAM Executive Committee during the first term of Bassam Adeel Jaleel, the current FAM President.

Umar was also appointed as the Sports Commissioner in 2018 during the administration of former President Abdulla Yameen. In 2020, he was elected as the Vice President of FAM for a second time.