National Team Coach tests positive for Covid-19 ahead of SAFF championship training camp
No players have been tested positive
Ali Suzain, National Football Team's Coach
National Football Team Coach Ali Suzain has tested positive for Covid-19.
In an interview with RaajjeMV, Suzain revealed that he tested for the virus on Wednesday, after exhibiting symptoms. His results came back positive.
Following this the national team responded quickly by providing samples for Covid-19 testing, however, none of the players or officials had tested positive for the infection.
This comes ahead of the National Team’s departure to Qatar on Friday, to train for the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship scheduled to kick off in Maldives, in October.
The team will return to Maldives after concluding the training camp, on September 28.
Suzain will be joining the team in Qatar after 14 days, said the coach, after recovering from coronavirus.
The country’ most accomplished coach was chosen to coach the national team, less than a week after the agreement with Martin Koopman was annulled. The team played only three matches under his guidance, after he joined the team as head coach in January 2021. The matches are the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar and AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers matches held in June.
Maldives will be competing in this year’s SAFF Championship with a team led by local coaches, including Ismail Mahfooz who was appointed assistance coach, Imran Mohamed as both assistant and goalkeeper coach as well as Aslam Abdul Raheem as goalkeeper coach.
The national team began training for the champion on August 26, with a preliminary squad comprising of 34 players. 30 players will camp in Qatar.
The 13th SAFF Championship is scheduled from 1 - 13 October, in Maldives.
This is the second time Maldives will be hosting the highly-anticipated SAFF Championship. The first time was in 2008, with Sri Lanka. That time Maldives brought home the SAFF Championship trophy for the first time. The last SAFF championship was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2018 where Maldives and India made it to the finals. Maldives took home the trophy that year as well.
