Kurendhoo, an island that prioritises football

Back in the day when turf pitches were unavailable in the Maldives, it was Lhaviyani atoll's Kurendhoo island that proved full-pitch turfs could be successfully developed within the islands through private funding.

The island's turf pitch, funded by businesses and from locals' own pockets, was the first full turf pitch that was developed privately. It was also the first time a full turf pitch was developed outside of Malé and Addu cities.

Hussain Nazeer, Manager of the Kurendhoo team, which is currently participating in the ongoing Gold Cup, said that this shows how seriously the island takes football.

Despite the pitch, however, Kurendhoo, which has a total population of 2,000 people, does not get opportunities to compete in football.

While many local team based within the atolls lack the capacity to compete in national level tournaments which are based in Malé, Football Association of Maldives (FAM)'s vision has been more focused on creating opportunities for teams within the Malé area.

On the other hand, Malé based teams would also face difficulties if a season is spread across the whole year and held in another island.

Nazeer said Kurendhoo has always competed in every tournament that was open to local islands. The team participated in the Minivan Championship every year until it was stopped as well.

Although the team is now able to participate in a short duration competition such as the Gold Cup, which is held in Malé, the team does not have the means to play in long duration tournaments in Malé.

"We can participate when [the tournaments] come to us," Nazeer said.

"The problem is that there are no such tournaments. There are no such opportunities. This is an opportunity [Gold Cup] we got in football. We are participating. And we are preparing our best."

"We prepare very well for the Golden Futsal Competition each year and participate in it as well," he explained,

For the Gold Cup squad of the team, they have included Sri Lankan goalkeeper Sujan Perera and a Belgian midfielder as the two away players.

They also spent a lot of money on the players. The rest of the squad are talented players from the island itself, Nazeer said.

"The foreign player [slots] are also full. The last one to join the team is Sujan. He will also be in the match," Nazeer said.

The Sri Lankan goalkeeper is competing in the tournament after playing two strong matches against Yemen where Sri Lanka won the first match.

This time round, Kurendhoo has a good team including players from the island's natives who live in Malé.

“Our island's players who also play in the Golden [football tournament] will play for the team [this time too],” Nazeer said.

To boost the excitement of the tournament in Kurendhoo, the team has also launched the slogan 'Gadhakoh Galolhah', suggesting that the team would go onto the Galolhu stadium with full strength.

Nazeer said that the island is full of support and excitement for the tournament.

"People from our island who live in Malé have also been asking how the tickets are arranged. Families will come to the stadium together," Nazeer said.

Kurendhoo played their first match against Addu City tonight at 21:00 hrs.