The British High Commissioner to the Republic of Maldives, Her Excellency Caron Röhsler, has expressed her support to Ali Ashfaq’s goal in the AFC Cup Bracket Challenge.

Speaking to MNUSU, on Friday afternoon, Ms. Röhsler stated that she first heard about this campaign on Twitter. She specified that she later found a big campaign poster near the bridge platform area and then she decided to check what it was all about.

After seeing Ashfaq’s goal, the High Commissioner stated, that she was quite impressed with the goal and that she decided to support him on Twitter.

“For me what it really demonstrated was a quality that I greatly admire – which is persistence”

High Commissioner Her Excellency Caron Röhsler, while talking about the goal

She said that at first it seemed an easy goal for Ashfaq as it was just the goal ahead of him when he first took the run. However, two defenders catch up with him and tries to tackle him multiple times but Ali Ashfaq kept on trying to get past them and then succeeded, stated the High Commissioner.

Talking about the campaign to support Ashfaq on this challenge, the High Commissioner stated that in these trying times there are many contentious issues that people find it hard to agree up on. She stated that a campaign like this is something that a lot of people can agree up on and that this campaign shows that many have come together to support and get Ashfaq over the line on this challenge. She further stated that this spirit of working together is an important thing and that this spirit must be applied on much bigger challenges in the country – specifically on issues related to climate challenge and violence against women and girls.

High Commissioner Ms. Caron Röhsler has been working tirelessly at her office and out in the community since her appointment back in October last year. She is the first resident High Commissioner of Britain to Maldives and she has been fully determined in her excellent work to expand the ties between the two countries. She also has met with one of our wings – Society of Hospitality and Tourism Studies (SHATS) back in 2019 in a beach cleaning event held by SHATS in Villimale’. Ms. Rohsler is perceived as a great advocate for environment and human rights.

Voting link:

The AFC Cup Bracket Challenge is an online voting challenge started by the Asian Football Confederation with 32 contestants in a knockout format. These 32 contestants represent 32 different goals scored in the cup over the years. Ali Ashfaq, the former captain of Maldivian Men’s National Football Team, is now competing in the final of this challenge with his superb goal he scored against Persibi Bojonegoro while he was playing for New Radiant back in 2013. He is up against South China AA’s Chan Siu Ki in the final which is set to end at 1300hrs (GMT+5) on 29 November 2020.

Written by: Shuaib Mohamed Iqbal,
Media Coordinator, MNUSU