The Maltese Olympic Committee General Assembly has temporarily suspended the Malta Table Tennis Association (MTTA), saying it has ignored an alleged case of serious misconduct for almost two years.
In a statement issued on Friday announcing the suspension, the Olympic Committee also claimed that two former members of the table tennis association were facing claims that they had misused funds, and said the association has resisted efforts to include a disciplinary process in its statute.
It also justified the decision to exclude table tennis player Andrew Gambina from the table tennis team representing Malta at the 2023 Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE), saying Gambina was left out for disciplinary reasons.
The committee voted to suspend the MTTA during a meeting held on Wednesday. The decision comes following tensions over the composition of Malta’s table tennis team at the 2023 GSSE.
Malta achieved its best-ever results at the 2023 GSSE, but its success was somewhat dampened by reports that international athletes were being recruited to represent Malta despite having no connection with the country.
The issue was especially relevant to Malta’s table tennis team – half the eight-person team was made up of foreign athletes recruited specifically for the games. Table tennis coach and former MTTA member David Pace was the first to flag the issue.
In its statement, the Olympic Committee noted that the MTTA had in July 2021 voted in favour of applying for Maltese passports by merit for four table tennis players.
Pace was the only person to vote against that decision, the Olympic Committee said.
“Days later Mr Pace decided to accept this decision and presented four different CVs of Hungarian nationals for the MTTA Executive Committee to discuss their possible recruitment,” the statement read.
“Ultimately, these options were discarded as the final selection fell on other players.”
That September, Pace sent the MTTA an unsigned resignation letter on behalf of himself and four other MTTA executive committee members, the Olympic Committee said.
It said the decision caused “havoc” within the association and forced the table tennis season to be delayed. The Olympic Committee then intervened and learnt that the MTTA was facing an allegation of abuse and complaint concerning the possible misuse of funds by two members who had resigned, it said.
MTTA voted against having a disciplinary process in its Statute
The Olympic Committee says the MTTA then resisted efforts to introduce a disciplinary process into its statute, with association members voting against that.
This, it said, “clearly breaches the standards expected by any national federation.”
The abuse case which the MTTA had not tackled is now being assessed by a three-person disciplinary board set up by the Olympic Committee.
To date, three meetings have been held and the case is still ongoing, it said.
"In view of all this, the Executive Board of the Maltese Olympic Committee gave a detailed account of all these facts to its General Assembly during its biannual meeting held on Wednesday 14th June and following a vote taken, 99% of those present voted in favour of serving the Malta Table Tennis Association with a temporary suspension," the statement read.
Andrew Gambina omission
The Olympic Committee also provided details concerning its decision to exclude Andrew Gambina from Malta’s GSSE team.
Gambina, it said, was left out of the squad on disciplinary grounds.
"During the final of the Men’s National Championships, Andrew Gambina demonstrated an act of absolute misbehaviour and disrespect after refusing to continue the match unless the assistant umpire was removed after he disagreed with the same umpire’s call," the statement read.
"Gambina’s poor attitude brought the match to a halt as he was resolute on not continuing and also sat on the table unless he got his way."
In order to bring the match to an end, the Tournament Director did remove the assistant umpire and the match concluded with Gambina losing to national champion Gabriel Grixti.
"Such behaviour is totally against the sporting principles expected by the MOC by any national team athlete," the Olympic Committee said.