One stadium, one city syndrome

People used to say had Alexcander Graham Bell did not come along in time we would be still living in Stone Age. Or if Benjamin Franklin did not discover electricity we would be still living in darkness. Looking at the nature of our current quagmire in football you may wonder: Seriously? Since no one came along of such calibre our football is living the current lifeless existence? Hence there is no end in sight for the pitless puzzle of one city one stadium syndrome?

Let’s get this straight. We have been playing football for the last many years in one stadium in one city. Everything revolves around it – if Galholhu stadium is closed it means currently there is no national football tournament going on. If your club is based in another island you have to come to capital city when a tournament starts.

That is of course a little something that has besieged our football as long as it is played. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but to come with a blueprint for a way out of this problem of ‘one city one stadium’ is out of our imagination. There is no way we can have 10 or 20 teams representing as many atolls. We are simply incapable of surmounting such a huge obstacle. 

The problem is because we are an island nation. An archipelago of some 1190 islands scattered over a vast stretches of Indian ocean, islands far-flung from their nearest neighbour, living a secluded life. We cannot model our football like other countries on home-and-away basis, it is unthinkable.  On economic front alone the enormous task involved with the  transport of teams and supporters from one island to another on match-day, let alone unfriendly weather which is mostly unpredictable throughout the year, is simply beyond our means.

So we trudges on.  Stuck in the primitive format where capital Male’ plays hosts to all football competitions and clubs based in Male’ take part in it.  There is precious little clubs from island can do if they don't make it to zone competiton, which is only for 2 clubs from 19 or so Atolls. Those who scrape through barely survive for too long for lack of quality players and funds.  In the late 90s Huriyya from island Hura did survive against all odds for some time before it gave it to the pressure of cumulative effects of lack of telents and insufficient funds .

If there ever was a problem for which our entrainment planners don’t have a viable solution ‘one city one stadium’ continues to throw new precedents for thinkers from local and abroad alike.