FAM congress proceeds despite club boycott; committees, audit firm selected

Five first division clubs including Club Eagles, United Victory (UV), Green Streets, Super United Sports (SUS), and Buru Sports boycotted the Football Association of Maldives (FAM)'s extraordinary congress held last night.

The congress proceeded with the participation of Valencia, Maziya, and TC, the only first division clubs eligible to vote, while 10 votes were unrepresented due to the boycott.

Although the congress initially lacked a quorum, it was opened to allow Sports Minister Abdullah Rafiu to speak. The meeting was briefly adjourned and resumed after resolving an issue with the Club Licensing Body (CBL).

Maziya, TC, and Valencia backed Ahmed Thoriq (Tom), who has contested the FAM presidency twice. Meanwhile, the five boycotting clubs supported Eagles CEO and former FAM executive committee member Mufawiz Hashim (Mufa) in the first election and later backed FAM President Bassam Adeel Jaleel in the second.

This congress marked the first since FIFA's Normalization Committee took over FAM’s management last year.

Key agenda items included the election of committees and the appointment of an audit firm to review FAM’s financial transactions over the past two years.

Despite earlier rumors that Club PK would also boycott the congress, the club attended the meeting held at Meerumaa Hotel in Male'.

Members appointed to the Appeals Committee:

1. Mohamed Shafaz Wajeeh

2. Ahmed Nazim Mohamed

3. Azeena Abdul Matheen

4. Ismail Dhanish

5. Mohamed Zaeem

Members appointed to the Disciplinary Committee:

1. Muawwiz Rasheed (former ACC Vice-President)

2. Mohamed Samah

3. Hussain Rasheed

4. Ismail Zumail Rasheed

5. Bassam Rasheed

Members appointed to the Ethics Committee:

1. Mohamed Ibrahim

2. Umar Mamdhooh

3. Aishath Riushana

Two audit firms submitted proposals to audit FAM. MHPA, which previously audited FAM, proposed a fee of MVR 62,640 for the 2023 audit. Prudent Chartered proposed conducting the audit for both 2023 and 2024 for MVR 88,650.

After evaluating both proposals, the Normalization Committee recommended Prudent Chartered, and the clubs approved the firm during the congress.