"Cannot authorize resuming DDPL yet"
The DDPL was halted suddenly on 3 February following a spike in Covid-19 cases in Male' City
HPA has asked FAM to present revised guidelines prior to making a decision on whether to authorize resuming DDPL
Dr. Ali Latheef of the Technical Advisory Group has stated that authorities would not be able to permit resumption of play for the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premier League (DDPL), which was discontinued abruptly earlier this month following a spike in Covid-19 cases within Male' City.
The DDPL had been halted on 3 February, due to an increase in Covid-19 cases being reported in the Maldives' capital Male', where the matches were being conducted at the national stadium. Over a week has passed since the league was suspended under a blanket ban on sports and sports-related activities issued by the HPA, and the national football community have expressed concerns that no date had been decided for when play could resume for the league.
Speaking at a press conference held on Friday on behalf of the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC), member of the Technical Advisory Group Dr. Ali Latheef stated that at this critical juncture, health authorities could only ease restrictions for essential operations only. However, he clarified that they were attempting to allow resumption of play for national sports competitions and events, and went on to state that he could explicitly say if such an approval could be granted at this time
While First Division football clubs and coaches have expressed concerns over the sudden discontinuation of the league, President of the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) Bassam Adeel Jaleel has recently announced that work is ongoing to have the DDPL resume.
Speaking on Raajje TV's "Kulhivaru File" programme, FAM President Bassam revealed that the HPA had requested for them to submit a new set of regulations to facilitate the resumption of play for DDPL. Bassam further detailed that they had previously submitted carefully drafted regulations to HPA in order to initiate the league in December last year, and said that he did not know what further steps the health authority expected them to implement at this time.
While play was discontinued abruptly for the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premier League early in Febraury, no Covid-19 clusters have been identified within the football community in relation to DDPL matches.
The 2020 DDPL was halted on 3 February due to the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic in the capital city of Male' where matches were being conducted under special guidelines. At the time of the league's suspension, a total of 34 matches had been played in the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premier League.
