Decisions regarding FAM will be made by FIFA: Tholal

According to representatives of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) delegation that recently visited the Maldives, decisions regarding the affairs of the Football Association of Maldives (FAM), currently facing various issues, will be made by FIFA and AFC, said Commissioner of Sports Mohamed Tholal.

A delegation of FIFA and AFC representatives had visited the Maldives last month and convened with administrative stakeholders of the football industry. The delegation had met with FAM, football clubs, senior officials of the Ministry of Sports, Fitness and Recreation as well as the Commissioner of Sports and the Maldives Olympics Committee.

Except for the clubs, FIFA had met separately with the remaining three organizations and officials. However, FIFA also engaged in discussions with football clubs excluded from the FAM extraordinary congress held in February.

Addressing the operations of the Ministry of Sports, Fitness and Recreation at the press conference held on Tuesday at Dhivehiraajjeyge Adu (the main radio channel for the national broadcaster of Maldives, Public Service Media), Tholal affirmed that he had shared all matters of FAM with the FIFA delegation.

"We have received some information from them [the FIFA delegation] as well," he said.

Tholal affirmed that the government will not intervene in matters concerning FAM and said that the administration and FAM will comply with the decision reached by FIFA and AFC.

"We will not be involved in matters related to FAM as FIFA and AFC are investigating the issues. They [FIFA and AFC] have said that they will inform us of their decision very soon," said Tholal.

"We have assured the FIFA and AFC delegation that visited the Maldives that we will provide all necessary cooperation and support for the decisions they reach," Tholal stated.