Victory Sports Club and Club Eagles have won their playoff matches in the President's Cup, securing their spots in the group stage.
Victory won their game against TC Sports Club last night with a score of 2-0. Victory's Ali Nasooh (Pilla) took the lead in the 31st minute. Ahmed Rizwan (Rizey) scored the second goal in the 58th minute.
The first match of the playoffs that was played yesterday evening saw the Eagles win against Club Green Streets with a score of 6-0. The 16th minute of the match saw an own goal from Green's Egyptian forward Al Saeed Mahmood, with the Eagles player Ibrahim Mahudhee Hussain (Feydhoo Ibbe) scoring two goals in the 30th minute and the 35th minute, with the first half ending 3-0 for the Eagles.
Mahudhee scored in the 52nd minute as well, securing his hat trick. Their fifth goal was scored in the 73rd minute by Mohamed Shamhan. Three minutes after that, Ali Haafiz (Haappe) scored the sixth goal for the Eagles.
The top four of the 10 teams from the Dhivehi Premier League automatically qualify for this year's President's Cup, with the rest of the teams, excluding the two that were relegated, qualifying for the playoffs.
Group 1 of the playoffs has Victory, Maziya and Buru Sports. Group 2 has the Eagles, New Radiant and Odi Sports Club.
The group stage matches will begin on Tuesday. The first game will be played at 4:00pm by Buru Sports Club and league champions Maziya. The second game of the day will be played at 9:00pm by New Radiant and Odi.
The President's Cup is the oldest football competition in Maldives, with its first edition in 2005 played between the top four teams of the First Division. After that, the cup was played in different formats from 2015 onward, with the last two years seeing all the teams from the First Division play in the cup as a way to kick off the season. FAM has faced criticism from the public, with them saying that this format made it so that the cup has lost its meaning and the special spark it had.
