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The OLSC Maldives (Official Liverpool Supporters Club Maldives) represents the official Maldivian fanbase of the football club Liverpool FC from England. The supporters group is a verified fanbase by Liverpool FC, the most decorated football club in England.

Introduction


Maldives, being a football crazy nation, has always had LFC fans. A popular choice among fans who travelled for studies during 60s-80s (as with OLSCs eldest fan, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who started supporting during the 70s when he was in Egypt and South Africa). Although EPL matches weren’t shown regularly on the national TV (only available TV channel locally till early 2000s), some special matches such as FA cup final were shown, and some highlights were shown during sports news. Michael Owen's performance during World Cup 1998 (an event the whole population very eagerly follows and shown on local TV) was one of the biggest reason fans cited while telling the story of how they started supporting LFC.

The fanbase grew with introduction of cable TV in the early 2000s the timing coinciding with the treble of 2000/01 and the start of the exciting carrier of Steven Gerrard. The miracle of season of Istanbul 2005 was closely followed by fans with regular matches being available on cable TV channels to majority of the population.

The idea of an OLSC


The idea of an OLSC should be hugely credited to individual efforts in getting the LFC fanbase together. Rather a tale of 2 successful attempts in getting the fragmented LFC fanbase Maldives. One starts from early 2014 (The page, initiated by Mohamed Sadhin, with a high follower rate, eventually became the OLSC's official Facebook page). An year on from forming the page Viber groups became popular and everyone started being always in touch through smart phones and better internet service. A Viber group was formed with followers of the page by Sadhin in mid 2015, which kept exponentially growing with local fans.

Meanwhile another rather opposite yet similar attempt led by Ahmed Naiz which was more focused on a viber group initially created within LFC fans in his friend's circle around 2013. The group admins also created a Facebook page in 2015. The presence of 2 similar pages and the 2 groups having common active fans led to an agreement to combine the two fanbases with shared admin responsibilities in 2016. These groups and the Facebook pages were the main basis of the current fanbase whose main communication channel is a regulated viber community formed upon introduction of community feature on viber in 2018.

Officially registering the supporters' club


The idea of having an official OLSC came by in the aforementioned viber groups. The main problem with the group was it not having a formal identity. This coupled with the idea that the community having a great youth presence, could do more professional, and also contribute to the community in general, and also that Maldives being a football crazy nation, should indeed have an official fan base of one of the greatest teams on the planet, gave birth to the efforts in being an OLSC.

An initial meeting to discuss the application was help on 5th January 2018 at “The Deck – Carnival”, a meet-up coffee contributed by fans from the Viber group.

Although there were other efforts by rival fans (namely Chelsea FC Supporters Club claiming to have registered officially) to have an official fanbase. OLSC Maldives is the first official fanbase of an international sports club to function and interact with the local fan community as a full-fledged fan club, some of achievements below.


 * 1st fan club to be locally registered with relevant government authorities.
 * 1st fan club to hold successful preplanned match viewing gatherings among fans with decorated venues. (with 50+ fans showing up wearing club jerseys or fan t-shirts)
 * 1st fan club to have membership cards and packages offered to fans.


 * 1st fan club to organize a competitive tournament among other fan clubs.
 * 1st fan club to have an event inviting a club legend (Former vice captain of Liverpool FC and former captain of Denmark Football Team, Daniel Agger).
 * 1st supporters' club to do fan t shirts.

OLSC Registration


Initial contact to LFC was made on 17th January 2018 via their official website and email. The effort was led by Bassam Rasheed (current Chairperson), Ibrahim Munawwar (current Vice Chairperson), Hassan Shubin Ibrahim (current General Secretary), Mohamed Shiyan and Abdulla Azmeen (current treasurer) with the advice of Simau Saeed (current Advisor) and Ahmed Naiz who made a previous attempt to register. All the discussions in the viber group with aforementioned team and few other fans (Ahmed Salah, Hussain, Mohamed Nashid, Qaary Ibbe, Riza Ahmed, Akram, Sadhin & Jantow, with contribution for the meeting by fans in other islands. The meeting was concluded with the ambition to get the official status from Liverpool FC before the end of February. Its good to highlight that these fans were total strangers before and they met for first time in early 2018.

An official proposal to form OLSC Maldives adhering to the guidelines and requirements set by OLSC team was sent on 29th June 2018. The OLSC team contacted with Policy Acceptance Documents on 17th August 2018. Acceptance letter was sent by Bassam on behalf of OLSC Maldives on 26th August 2018. The Acceptance was accepted on 7th September 2018 by a private phone call to Bassam, confirmed through a Welcome Email on the same date. The official unveiling of OLSC Maldives was done on 18th October 2020, with local news covering the achievement beforehand    (refer to the cited articles).

Local Registration


The process of applying for local validity began on 31st December 2018 with the submission of registration forms to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Official Liverpool FC Supporters Club Maldives (OLSC Maldives) was locally registered as an NGO with government authorities on 6th January 2019 (CR/01/2019), making it the first NGO registration of 2019 and the first NGO to be registered at Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment after the mandate was changed from the Ministry Home Affairs.

Members and Membership Package


The main application for membership is by registering through an online form which also gets you accepted in the Official Viber Community. Currently there are 400+ registered members.

A first ever by a fan club of an international sports club. Valid by Calendar year, initial round for 2020 was held on of 03rd November 2019, from 1600hrs onwards. 75 fans subscribed to the Red Membership in the initial issuance. Another 70+ fans requested for a 2nd round but was scrapped due to the world pandemic Covid-19 assuring fans we will have one for calendar year 2021. However, as the pandemic prolonged and with all the lockdowns, few difficulties were faced to have another issuance of Membership packages.

Match viewing Events
Champions league Final 2018/19 - 06th May 2019


 * Attendance: 60
 * Venue: Club 360 Maldives

Unveiling Match EPL 2018


 * Attendance: 30
 * Venue: Club 360 Maldives

Manchester United vs Liverpool FC - 24th February 2019 (invitation by president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom)


 * Attendance: 65
 * Venue: Salt Cafe & Restaurant

Manchester United vs Liverpool FC - 10th November 2019


 * Attendance: 65
 * Venue: Club 360 Maldives

FIFA Club World Cup Final - 21st December 2019


 * Attendance: 65
 * Venue: Club 360 Maldives

Liverpool FC vs Manchester United - 19th January 2020


 * Attendance: 65
 * Venue: Club 360 Maldives

Champions league Final 2019 (AGM 2019) - 01 June 2019


 * Attendance: 60
 * Venue: Club 360

Special Events
Meeting with former Liverpool vice captain Dianiel Agger - 23rd February 2019


 * Attendance: 55 fans
 * Venue: Salt Restaurant

Fans Competitions


OLSC invitational Cup 2019 - 11th February 2019 to 16th February 2019

OLSC PS4 FIFA competition - Delayed due to pandemic

Charity and Community activities


Contribution to Girl Guides Maldives - Eid 2018 gifts event – June 2018

Contribution to Care Society - 29th January 2020

OLSC Maldives have donated charity collected by through different fan activities in 2019 to Care Society. Manchester United fans, Chelsea FC fans and Arsenal fans were being part of their charity activities by donating through OLSC Maldives invitation Cup.

Participating in Haveli 2019.

Participating in Awareness against 2nd hand Smoking campaign and walk.

Current Executive Committee


Current executive community was elected on AGM held on 01 June 2019 together with 2019 Champions league final with an attendance of 60+fans confirm details and add committee.


 * Bassam Rasheed - Chairperson
 * Ibrahim Munawwar - Vice Chairperson
 * Hassan Shabin - General Secretary
 * Abdulla Azmeen - Treasurer
 * Mohamed Jailam - Media & Marketing
 *  Mohamed Shiyan -Events & Logistics 
 * Mohamed Sadhin - Social Media
 * Ahmed Afaal - Advisor
 * Simau Saeed - Advisor

Other notable mentions. Although there is an active executive committee, we have a list of other notable members who has helped us throughout all the activities from 2018-2020

Social Media
Our main communication channel is through our Viber community (restricted access). Fans may contact us on our social media channels or through our email to join the community.


 * https://www.facebook.com/olscmaldives
 * https://twitter.com/olscmaldives
 * https://www.instagram.com/olscmaldives

Email
General information: info@olscmaldives.com

Fans: ynwa@olscmaldives.com

Fans t-shirts


We also created fans t-shirts to be worn on matchdays under the guideline of OLSC team.