The Malta Independent on Sunday
‘Always approach tasks with passion and enthusiasm’
The Malta Independent on Sunday meets journalist, pub-lisher and promoter. He speaks about his early days, the MaltaPozzallo Windsurf Race, Superyacht Industry Seminars and his personal achievements.
Wilfred Sultana was born on the 7th January, 1949. He had a very happy and serene childhood both at home and at school. He was even an alter boy. He received his Education at Stella Maris Collage (Gzira). ‘I stayed throughout my whole schooling years at this Collage. Very active involving myself in school activities – drama, table-tennis and football. In one table-tennis national juniors tournament I even reached the final losing to Alex Anastasi who later became
Malta’s leading player for many years.’
His first love was for Football. ‘ Yes it was my favourite. At my time we had a number of budding footballers at Stella Maris like Charles Miceli, Ronnie Saliba and Louis Arpa. I was described as “a quieter sort of player but in the half-back line he is a dominating figure”. In early 1967 I was one of 22 schoolboys from whom Malta’s team to compete in a N.S.B. International Schoolboys Tournament was chosen. Four teams – Malta, Spain, France and Belgium – took part in this Tournament. Spain were the winners with Malta gaining second place followed by Belgium and France in third and fourth places respectively. All the games of the tournament were played at The Gzira Stadium, while training under Louis Borg and John Calleja was held at the Manoel Island Ground. A typical Malta team line-up during this tournament was: A. Brimmer (C. Pisani), V. Zammit, W. Sultana, F. Falzon, M. Caruana, F. Mifsud, R. Saliba, J. Cauchi, W. Vassallo, A. Sant, L. Arpa.’
‘I was even a Valletta F.C. player – Minors and U21 but then I stopped playing because of my studies. My father used to tell me then “Son, keep in mind that with football you don’t make a decent living!!” - Of course this was much before the time of Messi and Ronaldo.’
Sultana’s experience and love for Sailing started in a rather interesting way. ‘When I joined the Civil Service in late 1967 I was posted at the newly set-up yachting centre. Here my boss was Captain Arthur Podesta, the father of the famous yachtsman Arthur Podesta, who was also the Secretary of the Royal Malta Yacht Club. This was my first contact with yachts and yachtsmen and when I started to familiarize myself with yachting as an industry and as a sport.
‘In this period my inclination towards my real ‘passion’ – journalism, publishing and events organisation hit the ground. In fact 50 years ago in 1970 I published my first magazines and these were about football – ‘The Way To The Final’ a souvenir of the 1970 Mexico World Cup and the 1st Edition of ‘European Soccer Scene’ which recorded the participation of Maltese teams in the Champions Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup and the Fairs Cities’ Cup. The lack of promotion material about the yachting industry in Malta and my new enthusiasm towards publishing boosted my desire to present a magazine in 1975 by the name of ‘Spinnaker – Yachting news from Malta’ to move to the publication of the directory ‘Yachting in Malta’ in 1976.’
Many think that Wilfred’s involvement in the matter as journalist and publisher gives the impression he is a great sailor which Sultana is not. ‘I am a byproduct of my true passion. Besides covering windsurfing, sailing, and yachting I was behind countless amount of articles in local media concerning local events/athletes related to snooker, boxing, 4×4 off-road, power boats, football, boat shows, travel tourism…. As I always did with any events I organized I also handled the press reporting of the four international Seminars on the Malta Yachting industry held in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
Wilfred is synonimous with the Malta – Pozzallo Windsurf Race being the pioneer of this initiative. ‘In the 70’s and 80’ windsurfing was most popular and after establishing the Wishbone Open Class Windsurfing Championship as the biggest event locally I dreamt of a new challenge. This all became a reality on the 2nd October 1982 when two Maltese board-sailors, Peter Bonello and Paul Ellul, registered the first ever successful windsurf crossing from Sicily (Porto Palo) to Valletta Malta (54.3 n.m.) in 9hrs 31min. In 1984 for ten years until 1994, the Malta-Sicily Windsurf Race, attracted top level intenational windsurfers and foreign media to what became known as the ‘longest windsurf Race in the world’.’
But what was behind all this success? ‘One of the prime aspects, which contributed to the success of this race was the enthusiastic support extended by various skippers, and by other keen collaborators, making up the ‘Maltese yachting community’. On the 6th Edition, in 1989, the support fleet was made up of 25. I am also grateful to the media who always gave this, and other events I organized, their fullest support and consideration.’
The Middle Sea Race is something that he was involved in for a number of years. How prestigious is this race and what did it mean for Wilfred? ‘As I mentioned earlier when I was posted at the Yachting Centre the Executive Secretary then was Capt. Arthur Podesta who was also Secretary to the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Here I used to type meetings’ minutes, race notices and other material related to the Club and its activities. When I became more involved in journalism I always wrote about it with passion and enthusiasm. One of my favourite articles I did about the event goes back 43 years when I had the pleasant experience of meeting Jimmy White, who together with Alan Green were the prime instigators behind the inception of the Middle Sea Race. The outcome of my meeting with White was an article entitled “How It All Began”, published then and featured again in the media in 2009. Over the years the Rolex Middle Sea Race established itself as a world sailing Classic and undoubtedly is the most prestigious event on Malta’s international sports calendar.’
Snooker Promotions was another milestone for Wilfred. World class players were brought over every year for ranking tournaments. How did it kick off? ‘For some 14 years (1994-2008) I was a Director and founder member of Snooker Promotions (Malta) Co Ltd, together with Joe Zammit and Richard Balani, a Sports event company which organized and managed several important world class sports events in snooker and pool. Because of my illness my role was taken over for a number of years by my son Ramon. Those were memorable times for Malta as a destination, where invaluable hours of live and recorded exposure was given on Eurosport channels, and for the local snooker lovers to see so many big names of the game playing here.’
This year marks Wilfred’s 50th year in Journalism. But Sultana had a colourful career all thoughout ‘ Going through such an active life has been an honour and of great satisfaction whether as a journalist, as a publisher and as an events’ organiser. As a journalist I wrote countless amount of articles in local and foreign media concerning local events/athletes related to windsurfing, sailing, yachting, snooker, boxing, 4×4 off-road, power boats, football, boat shows, travel tourism…. As a publisher I started with ‘The Way to the Finals’ (1970) and ‘European Soccer Scene’ (1970), ‘Spinnaker – Yachting news from Malta’ (1975), 12 editions of ‘Yachting in Malta’ were published between 1976 and 2017, ‘Pozzallo For The Yachtsmen’ (2009), various Souvenir magazines related to different activities… organiser of ‘Wishbone Open Class Windsurfing Championship’, ‘Malta-Sicily Windsurf Race’, secured Maltese participation in the Giro D’Italia Di Windsurf and Euro-Africa Windsurf Race, organised 1st ever Supery