The decision to cancel AFC Cup 2020 was hard to fathom and accept, says coaches of the Maldivian teams that were scheduled to participate in this year’s AFC Cup.

Speaking on RaajjeTV’s ‘Kulhivaru File’ programme, Maziya Sports and Recreation Club’s coach Mohamed Nizam stressed that the cancellation came weeks after the club had already begun training and spent millions on preparations. AFC Cup’s cancellation led to a major financial challenge for the club. Nizam stated that he has not been able to understand and accept the cancellation, at a time major international football tournaments had already been taking place.

Maziya faced losses amounting to MVR two million following the cancellation, as preparations began after a date was fixed for the tournament and after agreements were already made with foreign players to join the club.

Nizam also noted that the Football Association of Maldives (FAM)’s president Bassam Adeel Jaleel had also put his best efforts to prepare for the matches scheduled to be hosted in Maldives, adding that he remains unclear on why the AFC Cup was really cancelled.

Joining the programme as well, Mohamed Shaazlee, coach of TC Sports Club revealed that although the tournament has been cancelled, he does not believe it was required and that AFC would have known of the challenges and consequences it may lead to.

In light of this, Shaazlee noted that he believes AFC will acknowledge the losses facing clubs following the cancellation.

On September 10, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) cancelled this year’s edition of the AFC Cup.

Maldives secured the bid to host AFC Cup Group E matches and the matches were scheduled to kick off on October 23, through November 4. Maldives clubs Maziya Sports and Recreation as well as TC Sports were to join the matches alongside Bashundhara Kings and Chennai City.

Initially, AFC Cup matches were suspended during March due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and since then the centralized groups stage matches had been scheduled to kick off in October. Under the preparations, matches in the group stage of the South Asian zone were scheduled to be held in the Maldives.

The cancellation comes in light of major concerns leaning towards the lack of hosts for most of the group stage matches, as many countries do not wish to host the matches at a time the globe is locked in a battle with the pandemic which surfaced in China’s Wuhan City in December 2019.

In this regard, the governing body’s competition committee held a virtual meeting through which recommendations led to the cancellation of the competition.

Further, the committee reached the decision to cancel the AFC Solidarity Cup and the AFC Futsal Club Championship as well.

However, the AFC Champions League deemed Asia’s “showpiece” competition, is set to resume on September 14, with East-Zone matches scheduled from November 15 to December 13. The final will be held on December 19 as a “standalone game” as opposed to the tradition home-and-away game.

In a previous group stage, Maziya and TC had competed against Bangladesh and India on March 12. TC lost to Bashundhara Kings 5-1 while Maziya tied with Chennai City FC 2-2.