Entrepreneur Joseph Portelli has hit back at critics who said that his wish to play for Hamrun Spartans would ridicule Maltese football.

People who want to ridicule Maltese football would not invest €1.5 million annually in a local team, he told Times of Malta.

The construction magnate resigned as Hamrun Spartans president last week, opening the way to playing for the club, which currently leads Malta's premier league. He would like to play for a few minutes in one of the final matches after the team had amassed enough points to secure the title.  Some football clubs have reportedly urged him to desist

In his first public comments on the controversy, Portelli told Times of Malta that his childhood love for playing football was undiminished. He pointed out that he played for the Under-16s national team as a teenager and would probably be playing in the league had he not stopped playing for personal reasons.

“That dream never left me,” he said. 

“Ever since I took over the team two-and-a-half years ago, I agreed with every coach to let me play for a few minutes during a match when we would have already gained enough points to win the title," he said.

“It is not because I think I’m a star player, but to achieve my childhood dream of playing in the Premier League.” 

Portelli, 45, said that when he became president of Hamrun he promised he would get the team to the group stage of an international league, even though many doubted him.  

“We were the first team to almost get there last year. We made it to the fourth round of the Europa League and we only needed one more win to get to group stage.  And I still believe we will get there while I’m still there.” 

€1.5 million investment annually

Portelli hit back at critics who said his decision to play for the club would ridicule Maltese football. 

People who wanted to ridicule Maltese football would not invest €1.5 million annually in a local team, he said.

On Saturday, international sports lawyer Carlo Rombolà wrote to the MFA urging it to accept Portelli's wish.

Rombolà, who is an adjunct professor of international sports law and had previously advised Hamrun Spartans, told MFA president Bjorn Vassallo not to stop Portelli’s dream.

“Football is for dreamers,” he wrote. 

“The story we tell is about a child who kicked his first footballs on the island of Gozo, with his biggest and most powerful dream in mind: to play in his own team.” 

'Please do not stop this dream,' sports lawyer urges the MFA

He goes on to explain how, despite wanting to be a footballer, life led Portelli to another profession and he went on to become a ‘prominent and respected entrepreneur’ and the owner of the ‘strongest team’ in Malta. 

“But the dream of playing remained there, untouched, and ready to come out when no one expected it: the desire to wear the red and black jersey of Ħamrun Spartans.”

Rombolà said that Portelli had done nothing other than ‘honour Maltese football’ with his tireless work.

“Football is not just business. Football belongs to everyone. Please, do not stop this dream,” Rombolà said at the end of his two-page appeal.

Rombolà owns a legal firm with offices in Rome and Milan and had defended Ħamrun Spartans in a case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport when the team was excluded from the UEFA Champions League in 2021. 

Portelli's intentions have caused a public stirring of emotions, with Ħamrun Spartans FC supporters insisting they see nothing wrong with the move and several sports lovers arguing it ridicules local football. 

On Saturday Times of Malta reported that several football club delegates and Malta Premier League chair Joseph Muscat had discouraged Portelli from making the move and MFA sources said the association was likely to refuse his registration as a player. 

But the Italian lawyer and sports law expert, who has authored several books and publications, stands by Portelli. 

“There are two ways of looking at this,” he told the MFA president in his letter. 

“On the one hand, you can think of the whim of an eccentric and over-the-top character. On the other hand, you can see the powerful and visionary gesture of an entrepreneur who, starting from the bottom, has reached the highest peaks of national sport, and intends – by playing a few minutes of the Premier League with the shirt of his team – to show to all the children of the world the message that football makes everything possible, and if you believe in your dreams you can be anyone, the president of a football team and at the same time a player of the team.

“With him, all the children of Ħamrun and the entire nation of Malta will take the field, thus becoming an example to the world.” 

Correction February 3, 2023: A previous version misstated Portelli's age. He is 45, not 42.