Italian professionals fly to Malta for Johanna Boni fundraising tribute football match
A number of lawyers, doctors, members of the media and other professionals from around Sicily and Italy yesterday flew down to Malta at their own expense to come together for a fundraising, friendly football match being held today in memory of Johanna Boni and other road victims.
In all, the Italian delegation was comprised of 35 people who have banded together for a good cause.
They will be forming a makeshift ‘Italian football team’, to play against ‘Malta’ in a fundraising event titled ‘Match For Life’, which has been organised in memory of the 27-year-old who tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident on 5 January last year, on Labour Avenue in Naxxar.
The Maltese team will include relatives of Johanna Boni, as well as Maltese footballers Justin Haber, Gilbert Agius and Michael Mifsud. “One female participant, Shakira, will also be on the Maltese team representing women,” Josephine Boni, Johanna’s mother, told The Malta Independent yesterday. Johanna’s friend, Frank Hansen, who is captain of the Norwegian beach soccer team, also flew in from Norway to form part of the Maltese team.
“I had to come, it was important for me,” Mr Hansen told this newspaper when asked how he felt when hearing about the event. President of the Italian ‘Associazione Italiana Vittime e Infortuni della Strade’ will also form part of the Italian delegation.
With the event being free of charge but welcome to donations, any funds raised will be given to Puttinu Cares. “It’s a match to save another person’s life,” said Mrs Boni. “My daughter lost her life but this event will save the life of another person.”
“We’ve also created the event to remember Johanna,” she added, “14 months have passed and I still don’t know how the accident happened and how Johanna was killed. So it’s an event both to remeber Johanna and also to help other people.”
When asked about the reactions to the fundraising event, Mrs Boni said that “Maltese people are nice, everybody offered their service. We got lots of help from the Mellieħa Local Council, from friends, and bikers have been really nice to us. They have supported us so much. That is something which has been very important to us because we didn’t have a lot of help from the authorities, which we need. We feel abandoned by the authorities, but with [the public] we have seen a lot of kindness, and everybody is helping us, everybody is with us.”
Prior to the ‘Match For Life’ event, there will also be a bike ride “for anyone who rides two wheels,” from Luxol at 4.15pm to the Mellieħa grounds. The ride will be organized “to raise road awareness,” said Fleur Marie Cilia Buckett, who helped organise the event. “Please come and join us, support our country, we need a lot of Maltese at the stadium,” she urged.
The event will take place today at 5pm at the Mellieħa Stadium, with kick-off at 5.30pm.
The match will also be aired on Radio Europa.