The Malta Independent on Sunday
The top management keeps its place after the elections
Football - MFA General Meeting
Norman Darmanin Demajo was given a strong vote yesterday in the Annual General Meeting held yesterday in Floriana. Despite not being contested, Darmanin Demajo wanted a vote of confidence and he got it with 118 votes in favour and 18 votes against.
He will be joined again by his three vice-Presidents as Chris Bonett received a brilliant confirmation for his sterling work with 119 votes from a possible 134, while long serving members Ludovico Micallef and Alex Manfre beat the new contestants Angelo Chetcuti and Victor Cassar with 93 and 74 against 58 and 28 respectively. Ivan Mizzi was confirmed as Treasurer after he wasn’t contested.
Michael Cutajar and Paul Falzon retained their places as Council Members representing the clubs with 75 and 71 votes respectively while Joseph Borg from Hamrun got 51 and Mauro Miceli from Swieqi stopped at 40 votes.
On the other side, a new face will be representing the small associations as Futsal Malta President Mark Borg hot 67 one more than Francis Muscat from IASC who was also elected, beating Lino Bartolo from SWAN who was three votes shy of Muscat while Joe B. Grech from Malta Beach Soccer Association got 30 votes.
The President of the Malta Football Association Norman Darmanin Demajo opened the Annual General Meeting giving a special mention to the local clubs who participated in the UEFA competitions, especially Birkirkara who passed through the second round. Darmanin Demajo said that last Thursday against Krasnodar, Birkirkara gave a good effort and the result didn’t reflect the game.
The General Secretary Bjorn Vassallo opened his section of the administrative report by saying that the day meant the end of a three year term but also six years from the day that Norman Dar- manin Demajo entered in his post.
Vassallo highlighted the important points from a vast and well detailed report as he said that the player status reform began to change the status quo that there was and now Maltese football was receiving the success of that decision with other reforms such as the Financial Fair Play with Vassallo saying that the association will not stop from making these reforms.
The General Secretary talked about the foreigners in local football as he gave the information that 43.5% foreigners played in the Premier League while a total of 19.5% played in all the divisions.
Vassallo also spoke about the increase in attendances and the important devcision to elimination the division of points n the premier league, after a whole 16 years. He also spoke about the unfortunate corruption case which hit Maltgese football badly last March.
Vassallo mentioned also the referees department by affirming that for the first time that the local referees were refereeing in all the divisions of UEFA while there was 17 international officials which was the largest number ever. This success was apart that a new referees academy was created.
The MFA General Secretary closed with two observations. He said that about 10 years ago, he spoke with Norman Darmanin Demajo to step forward and contest the President. Vassallo also said that there were some people that described the change as a step back in the association’s relationship with UEFA which was not the case.
Vassallo claimed that the electoral manifesto that was promised six years was almost done while thanking those who were there to change and closing with a ray of hope that the association will have a better base to build on.
Treasurer Ivan Mizzi gave a detailed explanation of the financial report of the year that for this time was 10 months and closed in March. In the past 10 months, the association had an income of €6,127,178 while the expenditure was of €4,340,064 for a profit of €1,787,114.
In the administration sector, the MFA had a good income of €3,622,373 while €1,208,615 characterised the expenditure with a large chunk of it going into salaries, referees expenses and activities organised by the MFA such as the MFA Awards. These three particular expenses amounted to more than €700,000.
Profit was also made in the national teams with an income of €1,840,574 thanks to the international games and sponsors for a profit of €285,390. On the other side, the association had a loss in the domestic competitions as the only income came from the disciplinary fines which amounted to €52,333. On the other side the expenses resulted in €588,818 which consist in games expenses, assistance to hiring of grounds, referees expenses, assistance to the national leagues and other cups and also payments to the Champions League Solidarity to add the total to €536,285.
Ivan Mizzi talked also about the Football Social Responsibility Fund. They began the season with €44,000 and an income of €34,000 with €27,000 of them coming from donations to finish the fund with €51,000. The budget expenditure for next season will be of €44,000 so that they will close the season with €7,000 along with the income of next season. These fund is trusted in the hands of President Emeritus and ex-MFA President Dr. George Abela.