FAM resignations: Decisions made without consulting, no choice but to resign

The five members on the Executive Committee of the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) that resigned together has said that they had no choice but to resign because of major decisions being made without their counsel.

After the General Secretary of FAM, Bassam Adheel was dismissed by the President of the Association, Ahmed Thoriq (Tom) yesterday, five members of the Executive Committee of FAM resigned from their position today in unison.

Speaking at a press conference at City Garden this evening following their resignation, the ex-members of the Committee said that the General Secretary was let go without talking to them and the news of the appointment of a Coach to the National Football Team was received through the media.

Vice President of FAM, Ali Umar who resigned today said that an election of the FAM was held after two years with the initiative of Bassam and saved the country from a suspension.

He said that a person assigned to improve things would be dismissed when there is no thinking of making improvements and Bassam is someone trusted by all of the clubs.

Ali Umar said that they did not resign to hurt Maldivian football but they could not bear with it any longer.

Former Captain of the Maldivian National Football Team, Assad Abdul Ghanee, who also resigned from the Committee today, said that there have been decisions made that are conflicting to the FAM regulations and with no opportunity to amend those, they resigned.

He said that there are things that they can be blamed for but with no means of answering to the questions by the public, there is no need to stay on in the position.

The former Physician of the National Team, Ahmed Shakeeb said that he served the National Team for 20 years and he can no longer trust the FAM President because of how he was treated at the last minute.

“With great hope and joy we came to serve in ExeCo (Executive Committee) to do important work hoping to push football to another step. And early on we were all united and worked well at everything. But after the first two weeks, we ExeCo were not discussed for anything. FAM decisions were learned from the news.” Shakeeb said.