{"id":16431,"date":"2025-11-19T03:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431"},"modified":"2025-11-19T03:39:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:39:40","slug":"president-muizzu-hosts-luncheon-for-visiting-palestinian-u-17-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431","title":{"rendered":"President Muizzu Hosts Luncheon for Visiting Palestinian U-17 Football Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"202\" data-end=\"395\">President Dr Mohamed Muizzu hosted a special luncheon on Monday at Hotel Jen for the visiting Palestinian Under-17 national football team, who are currently in the Maldives for a training camp.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"397\" data-end=\"707\">The event was also attended by First Lady Sajida Mohamed, Minister of Sports, Fitness and Recreation Abdulla Rafiu, Football Association of Maldives (FAM) President Ahmed Thoriq, and senior government officials. The gathering underscored the Maldives\u2019 continued solidarity and unwavering support for Palestine.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"709\" data-end=\"1132\">During the luncheon, the young footballers and their officials expressed deep gratitude to the Maldivian government and people for offering them a safe haven for their 10-day training camp. With football activities severely affected in their homeland due to ongoing conflict, the opportunity to train in the Maldives provided essential preparation for their upcoming Under-17 Asian Cup qualifiers in India later this month.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1134\" data-end=\"1505\">Team manager Mohamed Juma Sulaiman spoke emotionally about the warm welcome they received, describing an \u201cindescribable feeling\u201d as the team saw Palestinian flags displayed upon arrival at Velana International Airport. He highlighted that the team chose the Maldives because of the closeness, compassion, and longstanding hospitality shown by Maldivians toward Palestine.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1507\" data-end=\"1839\">Players also shared their appreciation, noting their happiness at being able to train in a peaceful, scenic environment with well-organised arrangements. Strengthening the bond between the two nations\u2019 football communities, the Palestinian squad played two friendly matches against the Maldives U-17 national team during their stay.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1841\" data-end=\"2026\">In an additional gesture of support, the Football Association of Maldives sold special souvenir tickets for the friendly matches, with proceeds dedicated to aiding Palestinian football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Dr Mohamed Muizzu hosted a special luncheon on Monday at Hotel Jen for the visiting Palestinian Under-17 national football team, who are currently in the Maldives for a training camp. The event was also attended by First Lady Sajida Mohamed, Minister of Sports, Fitness and Recreation Abdulla Rafiu, Football Association of Maldives (FAM) President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2981,2466,2506],"tags":[3359,3358,3357,2683,3360],"class_list":{"0":"post-16431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-government","8":"category-sport","9":"category-top-stories-block","10":"tag-fam","11":"tag-maldives-football","12":"tag-palestine-u-17-team","13":"tag-president-muizzu","14":"tag-sports-diplomacy"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>President Muizzu Hosts Luncheon for Visiting Palestinian U-17 Football Team - Maldives Business Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"President Muizzu Hosts Luncheon for Visiting Palestinian U-17 Football Team - Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Dr Mohamed Muizzu hosted a special luncheon on Monday at Hotel Jen for the visiting Palestinian Under-17 national football team, who are currently in the Maldives for a training camp. The event was also attended by First Lady Sajida Mohamed, Minister of Sports, Fitness and Recreation Abdulla Rafiu, Football Association of Maldives (FAM) President\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-18T22:38:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-18T22:39:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/445741_24bb1b53-4_-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hyvemedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hyvemedia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hyvemedia\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#\/schema\/person\/ec4a9854405440aa967a6808d4a10a03\"},\"headline\":\"President Muizzu Hosts Luncheon for Visiting Palestinian U-17 Football Team\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-18T22:38:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-18T22:39:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431\"},\"wordCount\":269,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=16431#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/445741_24bb1b53-4_-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"FAM\",\"Maldives Football\",\"Palestine U-17 Team\",\"President Muizzu\",\"Sports Diplomacy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Government\",\"Sport\",\"TOP STORIES - 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