Malé, Maldives – Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has stated that part of Football Association of Maldives (FAM) land in Hulhumalé was given to Apollo Holdings to settle debts in violation of the land agreement made with them.
HDC Managing Director Ahmed Athif said the land or any part of it could not be allocated commercially to another party under the agreement between FAM and HDC. However, the FAM has proposed changes to the agreement regarding the land, he said.
Athif said the matter is being looked in to but no decision has been taken yet.
Local medias have also reported that besides Apollo, the FAM has given parts of the land to several other private parties for a long period of time.
HDC allocated the land in Hulhumalé to FAM for the purpose of developing a football training facility. Two football pitches have been agreed to be built on the land. HDC handed over the land to the FAM in 2018.
Apollo has been given 5,000 square feet of land for 25 years under an out-of-court settlement of an MVR 40 million debt.
The settlement was made after a Civil Court judgment on Wednesday said that while the FAM had filed its reply to the charges, Apollo director Mohammed Waheed (Digali) had sent a letter to the court saying he had signed an agreement to settle the matter out of court.
The court agreed on June 14 to settle the dispute out of court over the May 16 suit, amounting to MVR 13 million due to Apollo and in exchange, 5,000 square feet of land leased to them from the Hulhumalé land of FAM for 25 years without any additional lease.
The national football association which is in a financial dilemma, owes clubs and various parties a large amounts of money. The building where the FAM House is located has recently been cut off from electricity due to non-payment of electricity bills to STELCO. They also did not pay the national team players the money given by businesses last year.
