Normalisation Committee reverses Valencia suspension

The normalisation committee of Football Association of Maldives (FAM), appointed by FIFA to re-stabilise the association after major corruption and embezzlement allegations against its former leadership came to light, has reversed Club Valencia's suspension today.

The club was slapped with a suspension by FAM's disciplinary committee in March this year, during former FAM president Bassam Adeel Jaleel's term.

However, the normalisation committee deemed the suspension violated the associations regulations and reversed the decision today.

According to Mihaaru, the normalization committee found that Valencia was suspended against regulations, without due process. Therefore, the committee decided not to accept the suspension. However, the committee has not yet announced its decision.

Although the decision has been made, the committee is yet to formally make this announcement.

Valencia was once managed by Bassam, who is now suspended by FIFA, and faces multiple charges of corruption and money laundering for misappropriating funds given to FAM by FIFA. Even when he did not manage the club personally, Bassam's family has always had ties to the club. Valencia is said to have been suspended after they decided against supporting Bassam in the FAM election which was scheduled for last year.

According to the club's Chairperson Abdullah Azmeen, the club's letter of support was for Bassam's opponent Ahmed Thorig (Tom). However, Mufawiz Hashim (Mufa), who ran as Bassam's proxy, also submitted a letter of support on behalf of Valencia. Azmeen alleged that it was a forged letter and reported the matter to police.

Following that, pro-Bassam board members of Valencia held a press conference said that Azmeen had resigned, and that a no confidence vote was taken prior to that. As such, he had no right to submit a letter of support for any candidate, the claimed.

At the time, Tom's candidacy would have been invalid had FAM decided to disqualify both letters of support from Valencia. This is because the FAM constitution requires candidates to have letters from three first division clubs to be eligible. Had that happened, Bassam's proxy would have taken over.

However, FAM had other plans and suspended the club instead, effectively removing Tom from the race. Although he appealed that case, he was unable to receive a definitive answer as FAM did not have an electoral appeal committee. Amidst that limbo, FIFA stepped in and postposed the elections indefinitely.

Although Bassaam later tried to hold a re-election, FIFA's ethics committee intervened, suspending him from all football activities, and stopping the elections. This was followed by the formulation of the normalisation committee and handing over FAM to them. The committee's mandate is to recover the lost money from the FAM and hold an election to bring the association back to normalcy. FIFA has given them a year to do this. The committee is chaired by former Sports Minister Ahmed Zuhoor, with the rest of the members being from finance and legal backgrounds.

Valencia, which is one of Maldives' top three clubs, being suspended at the time posed severe difficulties for the club's youth team to participate in tournaments. Practice was also suspended after the FAM stopped allowing them to use the stadium. The club's main team however, was not affected by this suspension as there were no first division activities held in the country since the suspension.