Shaking things up
The head of Maltese football has big plans for the island nation
The main boardroom at Malta’s National Stadium at Ta’ Qali is full of trophies. That would be expected in the home of many national associations, but there is some irony at this gleaming collection.
The Malta Football Association (MFA) was founded in 1900, joined FIFA in 1959 and made their competitive debut five years later, when the island secured independence from Britain, but the national team has not collected any senior trophies.
Malta’s 3-0 win over Cyprus at Ta’ Qali in September 2021 was only their third-ever win in World Cup qualifying – and their first at home. Even the marvellous new football museum at Ta’ Qali celebrates close defeats amid a handful of memorable victories.
Malta’s lack of success is harder to gauge when compared to similar sized
European nations. The island has a population of 460,000 and football is easily the most popular sport ahead of water polo and rugby.
Yet while Iceland – population 354,000 – qualified for a major tournament and Luxembourg have made consistent progress, Malta’s best performance in a qualifying campaign was the five points accumulated in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Coming off the back of a 2-2 draw in Slovakia, that win over Cyprus seemed to suggest that Devis Mangia’s team had turned a corner. The next two results brought narrow defeats in Slovenia and Russia and when Malta secured a 2-2 draw in Nicosia, the 2008 tally of five points had been emulated.
Then the Malta of old returned. Instead of surpassing that figure, Mangia’s team were battered 7-1 and 6-0 at home to Croatia and Slovakia, respectively. Those results left Malta bottom of Group H on goal difference behind Cyprus.
Sitting in that boardroom at Ta’ Qali, the MFA president Bjorn Vassallo promises: “In my mandate, I will spend a lot of money on resources to improve the technical side and the development so we do not get isolated results but constant growth in our national teams.
“My main ambition is for the performance of the national teams, but my plan got shaken up.”
Those plans range from taking over the running of junior leagues to a €50m redevelopment of the 17,000-capacity National Stadium. Most games in Malta’s
Premier League are played at Ta’ Qali, as many clubs do not have facilities to stage games. The Tony Bezzina Stadium in Paola only has one stand for spectators and owners Hibernians FC prefer to play at Ta’ Qali.
Of Vassallo’s “shaken up” proposals, the most eye-catching was a plan to enter a team of Malta’s best players into the Italian third tier, Serie C. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic scuppered that idea, which had not been greeted with universal acclaim.
Some locals were concerned that Malta’s best players would need support from foreign players to compete and that would mean the MFA subsidising wages of overseas players.
The plan is now on the backburner but Vassallo is better placed than most leaders of small European national associations to understand their place in the game’s eco-system. His career as a football administrator started in the small Maltese town of San Gwann. By 2010 – aged just 30 – he was MFA chief executive, had joined various committees in UEFA and in 2016 left the island for a full-time job at FIFA as director for Europe.
Three years later, he returned home with his young family after being elected as the MFA president. Norman Darmanin Demajo had held the post for nine years and the election was relatively close. Vassallo won 83 votes against 54 for
MFA council member Chris Bonnett and wants to bring unity.
“Before, the MFA invested in the infrastructure for the clubs and that was quite right,” says Vassallo, whose strategy covering the period 20202024 titled “We Can Perform Better” will change the game in Malta completely.
The plan for a club in Serie C attracted the most attention, but his main priority is to increase the number of players from Malta who are playing professionally overseas. Traditionally, this has been a major obstacle. Family is a major priority to the Maltese and persuading young players to take a gamble and leave is difficult.
Michael Mifsud, who has a record 143 appearances for Malta, played in Germany, Scandinavia, England and Australia and is still involved at 40 for Mosta but few others have come close to emulating this local legend.
Zach Muscat is with Casa Pia in Portugal and 20-year-old Alexander Satariano joined Italian Serie B outfit Frosinone in 2021. Forward Kyrian Nwoko was also loaned by Valletta to
Irish side St Patrick’s this season. The national team’s star also plays abroad. Teddy Teuma, who features for Belgian top-flight side Union Saint-Gilloise, was born in France but has a Maltese grandfather.
Other reinforcements for Mangia’s
Of Vassallo’s “shaken up” proposals, the most eye-catching was a plan to enter a team of Malta’s best players into the Italian third tier, Serie C
side have less tenuous links, such as the two Italians, Birkirkara FC defender Enrico Pepe and Valletta striker Mario Fontanella, who were both awarded citizenship after five years playing in the Maltese leagues.
Those short-term fixes helped boost results. “With the good results we got, people started to believe,” says Vassallo, who is widely believed to want to stand as the island’s president in the future.
Asked if Malta can ever qualify for a major finals, Vassallo produces a politician’s reply. “Why not?” he says. “If others have done it, then why not? We just need to work hard with
dedication and have a plan, but we need to be together.”
That plan is focused on raising standards. To develop better players, the MFA created regional hubs in the north and south of the main island and on neighbouring Gozo. The best young players get 230 hours of training a year with national coaches. Vassallo has made important changes to win over the players and the clubs.
Carlo Mamo, a former international and president of the Malta Football Players’ Association, explains: “After the insistence and pressure made by MFPA and FIFPro, in June 2020 the transfer fee at the end of the contract and also a compensation which had to be paid for youth players were abolished. This system was phased out of football worldwide after the landmark Bosman ruling 24 years ago but only now in Malta.
“Mr Vassallo also made important changes in the governance of the organisation. Up until a few months ago the players union did not have a voice and no voting power at federation level. Now we have one seat on the highest forum which is the executive committee and the players can voice their concerns through the players union.”
The clubs have also formed their own association as part of a radical overhaul of how club football operates. Vassallo wants the top flight to become a “privatised league” with the clubs taking responsibility for the commercial aspects such as sponsorship and TV rights. As part of these changes, foreign investors will also be permitted.
Buying a Maltese club is difficult as members vote in presidents, who can be ejected by a vote at the next election. As a result, presidents can be reticent to invest and with little money from tickets, TV or sponsorship, Maltese clubs have a precarious existence.
Periodically, foreign investors arrive promising to put money into Maltese clubs but the results have not been particularly auspicious.
Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi had already been linked with a string of failed bids for clubs ranging from Liverpool to Vicenza, Carlisle United and English non-league club Morpeth, when he arrived in Malta in 2017 promising to invest in Naxxar Lions. Two years later, he tried to sue the club’s committee for €600,000 in a Canadian court.
Only this season, Hamrun Spartans were excluded from the Champions League over a match-fixing incident dating back to 2012-13, when the club’s committee got involved with shady Bulgarian investors. Those investors are long gone, but, despite an appeal, the club were still excluded, which was harsh on local developer Joseph Portelli, who became Hamrun’s president in 2020.
Portelli has spent heavily on players and veteran Ivory Coast international striker Seydou Doumbia was rumoured to be on wages of around €10,000 a week. That would be a record if true, but top players such as national team players can still earn as much as €5,000 a month.
Opening clubs up to foreign investment may bring more money to attract better players from abroad and drive up standards, but investors will want to see a way of making a return. Vassallo is well aware of what has happened previously and says that the MFA will bring in a form of Fit and Proper Persons test to vet potential new owners before the rules change.
There are some Italians involved with Marsa FC but the latest investment in Maltese football has come from Scotland. Edusport – an academy based near Glasgow that trains and educates young French players – expanded to Malta in October 2021. Chris Ewing, who owns Edusport and also the Scottish semi-professional club Caledonian Braves, says: “As far as I was concerned it was a no-brainer to invest there. Malta is in the European Union; they all speak English and the weather’s good all year round.
“The challenge is how you allow the investment. It’s a double-edged sword as they need to improve the national team but they have a limit of foreign players, which may put off some investors. The good thing is that there is a Champions League spot.”
The recent success in UEFA competition of well-funded clubs from the likes of Gibraltar and Luxembourg shows there is a place for teams from smaller European countries. Vassallo’s ambition is that Malta’s clubs can join them and provide further impetus for the national team that would help his strategy pay off.