Ex-football club official fined Lm500 for assaulting linesman

A former committee member of the Msida St Joseph Football Club was yesterday fined Lm500 and banned from approaching any football ground for a year for slightly injuring a linesman during a match between his club and Pietà Hotspurs.

"Football, like any other sport, is a form of entertainment to anyone who likes such forms of recreation but whoever is not capable of controlling himself should not go anywhere near such activities before he learns to control himself," Magistrate Saviour Demicoli ruled on handing down judgement in the case of Charles Chircop.

Mr Chircop, 41, was found guilty of punching linesman Nicholas Debattista when, as he put it, "he had lost his senses" at the Ta' Qali national grounds on January 15. Mr Chircop was also found guilty of breaching the peace and relapsing after Magistrate Demicoli noted that he had been found guilty of causing trouble at a football ground on two previous occasions.

He was, however, cleared of assaulting a public officer on the grounds that Mr Debattista was appointed as a linesman by the Malta Football Association and such post did not constitute a public officer as defined by law.

The magistrate bound Mr Chircop not to approach Mr Debattista for a year against a Lm100 fine in default.

Police Inspector Mario Bonello prosecuted.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio appeared for Mr Chircop.