Let’s take home advantage.

The FIFA World cup qualifiers is no SAFF championship. Some of Asia’s Finest come out. China certainly are on their way to becoming a household name in Asian football. China’s president XI Jinping’s love for the beautiful game has seen China invest more than 740 billion Euros. Staggering numbers none of the world’s finest footballing nations can match not even super powers like America or Britain can out muscle China. China’s financial strength is far too dominant for anyone in the world. The investment in quickly seen Chinese national side flourish and average Asia’s highest home and away travelling fans for both club and national side matches.

Maldives unlike China does not have the financial muscle to bring in world class coaches, build state of the art facilities or even a strong competitive league as the Maldives first division is not open to the whole country but rather to clubs established in the capital Male’ and even those teams from other islands and cities that make it to the top league must play all their games away in Male’ but the FA is trying to change it. This season’s opener saw Foakidhoo play at home to TC. A star studded TC was forced to a frustrating Draw away from home in front of a hardcore home support.

Talking of Support, the Maldives national team has failed to get the best of their home advantage. Against China it was more like an away match and to add to the disappointment Philippines who are in the same group as Maldives have a large number of Filipinos working here could turn that game into a Home game for them. We need to be better prepared and sell less tickets to away fans even if the stadium is half empty. The point is having more home fans. The importance of Home games is the most valuable in two legged Club and Nationals fixtures in the world.

In South America, Chilean cut off Argentina team hotels water supply and while playing away in Buenos Aries Brazilian national team refused to use the water provided by Argentine FA claiming it was poisoned and later brought water from Brazil. Serbia fans lit of flares and banged bass drum in the early morning hours of match day to disturb superstar Ronaldo and his team mate. Albanian fans backed by their FA let off a political banner to Disrupt the Serbian support and cause mayhem inside the crowd. These dirty tactics are all part of trying to take home advantage of disrupt away support. I have seen people on social media complain at the lack of support against China and claiming fans Chanted politically motivated chants. That’s all part of football and in the terraces dirty tactics and politics always comes to play its part. The fans always demand the best from their National side and give never ending 90-minute support.

Some Maldivian players fail to acknowledge the supporters. That’s pretty disrespectful from a fans point of view. So next time even if you win or lose the game all the players must keep in mind to appreciate the fans. We give 90 minutes of never ending support to the players and team. But there are things everyone has opinions about. I’m not a big fan of Segrt but he has delivered on many occasion. Even the SAFF Championship. Some of the chants were targeted at Fa boss Bassam. I thought it was pretty harsh on him after all he has done a good job especially with youth development. Fans must know that it’s not Bassam who selects the team or who plays. But in a world that evolves around politics it’s the politics that sometimes get the better of feelings and common goals and in football you don’t win all games. Sometimes big surprises sometimes disappointments and sometimes you get hammered like against china. But good days always come and when it does

we all cheer for our Red Snappers.

From: a reader (via gmail)

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