Chaos in FAM: Endless election issues

When asked if he was concerned as General Secretary about the state of election issues in the country's football governing body, Football Association of Maldives (FAM), Mohamed Jaushan Shareef's reply was simple: Everything is going according to the rules of FAM, FIFA and AFC.

In one perspective, his points are not wrong. For example, the candidacy of former national team forward Ahmed Thorig (Tom) was rejected by the FAM electoral committee, citing FIFA rules.

From another perspective, what if the Electoral Committee, which decided on Thorig’s ineligibility, is not valid even according to the rules of the FAM?

The issue is now with FIFA and the AFC. Jaushan said the electoral committee was elected by the FAM congress. Therefore, he cannot say that the committee is invalid.

Jaushan is a sports lawyer. So his opinion will be very different from the common man's.

On the other hand, Thorig has filed a complaint with FIFA and the AFC over the cancellation of his candidacy.

"I have taken all the cases to FIFA and AFC to get my rights. FIFA asked the FAM to send all the relevant documents. I know that the FAM has already submitted all the documents about me," he said.

Thorig and Eagles' Mufawiz Hashim (Mufa) are contesting the FAM elections to be held on 31st of this month.

According to FAM rules, a candidate must have the support of at least three first division clubs. Thorig was supported by Maziya, Trust and Care (TC) and Valencia out of the eight teams in the first division.

Mufawiz, who is currently on the FAM exco, is given support by Eagles, Green Street, Buru Sports, United Victory (UV) and Super United Sports club (SUS). The problem arised when he claimed that he had the support of Valencia. Therefore it seems that Valencia has supported both Thorig and Mufawiz.

The problem arose from this point. Or this, Thorig’s backers believe, was a trap by the current FAM president, Bassam Adil Jaleel, to deliberately cancel his candidacy.

Bassam, who has been accused of misusing foreign funds received for the FAM and is facing a police investigation, will not contest the election. But his influence in the FAM is prevalent, as even the most ordinary person who knows anything about the FAM knows.

The FAM's electoral committee ruled that Valencia's support for Thorig and Mufawiz was in accordance with the club's rules. Therefore, Valencia's support for the two was accepted within the FAM rules.

The FAM took action after Sports Commissioner Mohammed Tholal told the FAM twice that any document without the signature of Valencia chairman Abdullah Azmeen would be accepted. Azmeen had signed the documents in support of Thorig. The letter in support of Mufawiz was signed by Valencia Vice Chairman Ilmau Hussain Ibrahim (Mau).

The FAM then decided that Ilmau's signature would also be accepted.

There is nothing in the FAM rules to process one club supporting two candidates. Therefore, the Electoral Committee looked into how FIFA would act in the situation. If an association supports more than one candidate in FIFA elections, all support will be invalidated. Therefore, the Electoral Committee ruled that Valencia's support for Thorig and Mufawiz, both, were invalid.

At that point, Thorig had the support of only two first division clubs. His candidacy was rejected by the committee for lack of support from the required three first division teams.

Now the problem has been submitted to FIFA and the AFC. Speaking to Atoll Times, Thorig said the electoral committee elected at the FAM congress last year was not valid because two of its members were appointed in violation of the FAM rules.

“Article 4 of the FAM Electoral Code states that members of the Electoral Committee shall not be elected for two consecutive terms,” Thorig said.

However, he said the three members of the committee were elected illegally thus. They are:

Thorig said he had filed the complaint with FIFA and the AFC because a committee could not conduct anything related to the election in violation of the FAM's constitution and election rules.

Amidst efforts to secure Thorig's rights, he mentioned a bigger issue. According to the FAM rules, there must be an electoral appeal committee to appeal such election issues. However, the committee was not elected at last year's congress.

There is no official body in the FAM to look into Thorig's case due to the absence of an appeal committee. He had appealed the Electoral Committee’s decision on 12th of this month. According to FAM rules, a decision must be taken within three days. This Monday is the last day of that period.

Jaushan said Thorig has the right to appeal. However, he does not want to exactly say that the committee was not elected as he had not seen all the FAM documents when he took office.

“When I took over here, it was very difficult to find documents,” Jaushan said, referring to the removal of hard disks of computers at the FAM for an investigation into allegations of money laundering.

He did not say whether an appeal committee had been elected, but said the FAM was also awaiting the advice of FIFA and the AFC.

There is no mention of the election of the Electoral Appeal Committee in the minutes of last year's FAM Congress. Therefore, Thorig's contention that it is a non-existent committee is supported.

The FAM is not only facing financial problems. There is nothing but problems in what should be the most powerful sports association in Maldives.