Ali Suzain, the senior assistant coach of the Maldives National Football team, has been appointed as the coach for the U-23 National Football team.

The coaching staff for the U-23 team was announced by Football Association of Maldives (FAM) on Tuesday. While Suzain was appointed as the coach, Sobah Mohamed and Mohamed Shahid were chosen as assistant coaches.

This is Suzain’s second time coaching the U-23 football team. His first time was in the year 2007.

The national team will play in the qualifying matches for the AFC Asian Cup being held next year, under Suzain’s instructions. The qualifying matches will be played in October this year from 27th to 31st 2022, and the group that Maldives is in, Group C’s matches will be held in Bahrain.

FAM President Bassam Adeel Jaleel had previously told RaajjeMV that the U-23 team will be training in Bahrain ahead of the qualifying matches, and they are to depart 10 days prior.

On October 27, Maldives will play against Iraq, with the second match will be against Bahrain on 29. The third match will be played on 31 October, against Afghanistan.

While the qualifying comprises of 11 groups, the team that comes first in every group will earn the opportunity to be in AFC Asian Cup. Among the teams coming second place in each group, four teams with the best performance will also be granted the opportunity.

The last time Maldives has participated in the qualifying matches for U-23 AFC Asian Cup was in 2019. During that time, the team’s coach was Petar Segrt who was the head coach of the Maldives national football team. In that year, Maldives competed with UAE, Saudi Arabia as well as Lebanon.