The next ExCo of the upcoming FAM elections has already been tasked with forming and hosting a women's football tournament.
FAM held a congressional hearing last week Friday where it was decided that after the upcoming FAM election on 26th July, the newly appointed ExCo is to formulate a framework for a women's football tournament within a year and present it to the congress for approval.
The last time the FAM hosted a women's football tournament was a decade ago in 2015, where New Radiant was crowned champion. If a women's football tournament is not held within the year, next year's budget allocated by FIFA will not include the funds for such a tournament.
The lack of a national level football tournament is the reason why a female footballer still hasn't received the Best Female Footballer Award via the Maldives Sports Awards.
FIFA has stated that the Maldives Women's National Football team has to play at least three matches in a year. If this condition is not met, funding will be halted as a result.
FIFA has decided on increasing the funding next year for women's football across the globe.
While a women's football academy (FAM Girls Football Academy) was well underway via previous FAM leadership, even that project has come to a halt.
A previous official who worked at FAM's Women's Football Department stated that there was a lot of confusion when FAM was trying to gather funding from AFC and FIFA for further development of women's football.
The previous official stated that allegedly, FAM has gathered funding in the past by stating that they were directly responsible for organizing the tournament the Naifaru Council hosts every year.
"Not even 30% of the funding goes toward women's football. It tends to go towards men's football or other parts that FAM deems fit", the previous official stated.
"However, it has been stated that there have been efforts being made towards expanding women's football activities in the reports FAM sends to FIFA and AFC. The budget for women's football gets released once the report has been sent out."
