National football team prepares for travel to Dubai on Saturday

The Football Association of Maldives (FAM) has revealed that the national football team is preparing to travel to Dubai on Saturday, after camping and training at Hotel Jen by Shangri-La ahead of the AFC Cup Joint Qualifiers.

Matches for Maldives' group in the AFC Cup Joint Qualifiers have been scheduled to take place in China between 30 May and 15 June. While a preliminary national squad of 33 players had camped for training at Hotel Jen by Shangri-la in Maldives, FAM have revealed that 25 players who test negative for Covid-19 will permitted to join the final squad departing for China.

Players for the Maldives national football team conducted their training sessions inside the ballroom at Hotel Jen, videos of which were shared by FAM President Bassam Adeel Jaleel. He stated that Maldives was probably the only team in the world that had to train inside a ballroom for the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, and expressed special gratitude for the support from Hotel Jen by Shangri-La.

FAM's Secretary General Hussain Jawaz stated in Facebook post that it was shameful that the national squad did not have a training space with just a few weeks left to play Asia's biggest teams, and commended players that would be leaving their families to represent Maldives despite overwhelming difficulties.

Coach for the national football team Martin Koopman had earlier said in an interview with Raajje MV that it was unfair for players to have to train in a ballroom ahead of the qualifiers. He noted that it would affect the performance of players as they would only have six days to train on a field ahead of the official matches.

As the national team is unable to train properly in the Maldives, the squad will be camping in Dubai for 10 days ahead of the AFC Cup Joint Qualifiers in China. FAM confirmed that the national football team would be traveling to Dubai sometime on Saturday.

Maldives has three matches left to play in the qualifiers against China, Syria and Philippines, with the match against Syria designated as a home match for Maldives. Syria is ranked first with 15 points from five matches played, and China follows in third from seven points won through four matches. Maldives is currently fourth in the qualifiers group after having won six points from four matches played. Philippines follows in fifth with no points earned from five matches played in the qualifiers.

Goalkeepers: Hussain Shareef (Hussain), Mohamed Faisal, Mohamed Shafeeu (Chek) and Ali Naajih (Naajy)

Defenders: Akram Abdul Ghanee (Akoo), Samooh Ali (Samutte), Ahmed Nooman (Helmet), Mohamed Saaif, Hussain Sifaau Yoosuf (Kuro), Haisham Hassan (Bidi), Ali Shaamis (Thoppe), Ali Shamaal Abdulla (Shammu)

Midfielders: Imran Nasheed (Inma), Mohamed Irufan (Irey), Hussain Nihan (Nihat), Mohamed Umair, Ibrahim Aisam, Hamza Mohamed (Hampu)

Forward: Ali Ashfaq (Dhagandey), Ali Fasir (Sentey), Ibrahim Mahudhee (Feydhoo Ibbe), Asadhulla Abdulla, Mohamed Naaim, Ali Haisham (Chumpu), Hassan Nazeem Gasim (Choatu)