Despite an earlier announcement to search for a new coach for the Maldives senior national football team, the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) Normalizing Committee is now considering entrusting the team to experienced coach Ali Suzain, who most recently led the national squad.

In April, FAM announced plans to find a new coach for the Maldives senior national team in preparation for the upcoming SAFF Championship, initially set to kick off next month.

However, the SAFF Championship has now been postponed from that date to next year. Therefore, FAM is currently considering continuing with the coaching team that previously guided the team, instead of finding a new coach.

Regarding this, FAM’s Normalizing Committee member Ismail Siman said that due to the postponement of the SAFF Championship, they are no longer considering hiring a coach as per the previous announcement.

He said that the national team only has two matches ahead, and they are not considering changing the coaching team for these two matches. Instead, he said that the national team will compete in the upcoming two matches with the previous coaching team.

Next month, the Maldives will compete in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers with a match against Timor-Leste. Prior to that, they will face Singapore in an international friendly. As a result, Suzain will lead the national team in both fixtures.

Suzain also led the national team in their most recent AFC Asian Cup Qualification match against the Philippines, as well as in the friendly match against India prior to that.