Montenegro's Dragan Đukanović , who has previously coached in Indonesia as well as Bangladesh, has taken over as the head coach of Maldives champions Maziya Sports and Recreation.

Đukanović took over as head coach of Maziya on Thursday. He started his coaching career in 2013 after playing for Yugoslavian clubs. He has since coached Bangladesh's Sheikh Russel, Indonesia's Borneo Samarinda, and PSIS Semarang. Đukanović also coached Greece's Karaiskasis and Egaleo.

The 54-year-old Đukanović took charge of Maziya for the upcoming AFC Challenge League. Given the current state of football in the country, it is not clear when the league will start, but Maziya is gearing up to represent the country in the AFC's newly-held AFC Challenge League. It is expected that the team will start training soon.

The group, which includes Maziya in the Challenge League, will next feature Kyrgyz champion Abdish- Ata Kant, last year's Kuwait League runners-up Al-Arabi and Turkmenistan champion Arkadag.

In the Challenge League, teams will compete as the West Region and the East Region. The West region consists of Maziya, consists of three groups. A total of six teams will compete in the two groups in the East Region. The first and second places in both groups in the East Region will be directly quarter-final, while group first in the West Region will get a direct quarter-final berth. West Region will then go to the rest of the slot with the best result and the second team in the group. The results of the second teams in the three groups in the West Region will be taken into account to see the team that gets the final slots.

While the AFC has decided to centralise and host matches in both regions as well, the host team of the group that includes Maziya is Kuwait's Arabi. Therefore, the group matches will be centralised and played in Kuwait. The group stage matches are scheduled for October 26, 29 and November 1.