Former women's football player Mariyam Mohamed (Mayan) has said that the loss faced by the National Women's Football Team in the Women's SAFF Championship is the result of the negligence shown towards women's football by authorities.
Former women's football player Mariyam Mohamed (Mayan) has said that the loss faced by the National Women's Football Team in the Women's SAFF Championship is the result of the negligence shown towards women's football by authorities.
In the three matches played at the SAFF Championship, 25 goals were scored against Maldives, with Maldives failing to score even once.
Mayan, who previously worked as an Assistant Coach to the women's team, said that it is time to set aside those results and focus on developing women's football.
"The same applies to women's football. Players have to be recruited through youth development. That's the point where development of women's football should begin," she said.
Mayan recalled that Maldives had previously come close to winning a medal in this region in women's football, referring to SAFF Championship semi-finals in 2016.
That year, Maldives had beat Bhutan and Sri Lanka and made it to the semi-finals. However, this year, Maldives lost to both those countries. Bhutan beat Maldives with a score of 13-0.
She said that the setback is being faced now due to negligence. She stated that the countries which had previously lost had since exerted dedicated efforts into developing the sport.
"From countries like Bhutan, we have seen the results of that hard work," Mayan said.
Bhutan has a dedicated academy for women's football under their football association. Similar efforts had earlier begun in Maldives as well, but was not seen through.
Mayan, however, advises to let bygones be bygones and to focus on the future.
"It's already far too late. We have seen that we need to start all over again and do this work," she said.
"We need to start contesting in the age categories at SAFF. That's where we need to start from."
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