Malé, Maldives – As Health Protection Agency (HPA) did not give permission for the national football team to prepare for World Cup/ Asian Cup qualifiers in Maldives, the team departed for Dubai.
The president of Football Association of Maldives (FAM) Bassaam Adeel Jaleel stated that the team departed for Dubai today, for the final training of the upcoming World Cup/ Asian Cup qualifiers.
The national team had been training at their camping area Hotel Jen’s ballroom, as they did not get permission to train at the stadium.
Bassaam had shared videos of their training at Hotel Jen on social media platforms, and had said that out of all the teams in the world preparing for the qualifiers, only the Maldives national team had to train in a ballroom.
Today, the team departed for Dubai with 23 of the total 25 members of the final squad. Two players of the team were having trouble with their visa, and will join the rest of the team in Dubai later.
Last night, Bassaam had talked about his concerns regarding the team not getting practice on the field.
I can say that this is the only team preparing for the World Cup qualifiers in a hotel’s ballroom.
Football Association of Maldives (FAM) Bassaam Adeel Jaleel
Some players had resigned from the team even though they were selected for the preliminary squad due to testing positive for covid-19 and personal reasons. These included some very important and skilled players. The two players that got better after testing positive for Covid-19, and joined the team again are Hamza Mohamed (Hampu) of Maaziya, and Hussain Nihaan (Nihaat).
