FAM responds to Minister Mahloof’s comments on ‘fact finding’ committee

Youth Minister Ahmed Mahloof’s claims that the ministry’s ‘fact finding’ committee was established to investigation funds that the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) received is ‘shocking’, association president Bassam Adeel Jaleel has said.

Bassam said this in response to Mahloof claiming on Thursday that the committee was only formed to investigate and account for ‘large sums of money’ that the FAM received, and his letter to Bassam stating that they will not intervene in the association’s affairs.

Mahloof said this while having clarified that the Asian Football Federation (AFC) did not ‘indirectly or otherwise’ ask the youth ministry to shut down any investigation into why Maldivian clubs were barred from competing in the AFC Cup.

Bassam’s response refers to a tweet from Minister Mahloof on the 25th of November, where he said that the committee would investigate both financial matters as well as why Maldivian clubs were barred.

AFC had told the ministry that it does not believe ‘any third party’ should come in between matters between it and the FAM. Bassam described this as the minister having backtracked on his statement after the AFC’s comments.

“The minister saying two things about the same committee feels irresponsible and really undermines the conduct of this association and our athletes”, Bassam said.

Minister Mahloof is to meet AFC president Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa on Saturday.