Proposals rejected

Proposals for a new national league format from season 2006/2007 were rejected by the MFA council members during last Thursday's long sitting of the association's decision-making set-up.

This means that the present format will be retained and that the Premier League will still be played over two phases, with the teams divided into two pools, championship and relegation, after the points are halved at the end of the first two rounds.

According to the proposals presented in January for the consideration of the council members following broad agreement reached between the MFA officials and member clubs on the need for such reforms, the Premier League, after a transitory period in 2005/2006, was to go down to eight teams and played on a three-round basis with no division of points.

The bottom team was to be relegated to the First Division and the penultimate team to be involved in a relegation play-off on a best out-of-three basis against the second-placed team in the First Division.

The number of teams in the other divisions was to remain unaltered, while the promotion and relegation mechanism, except for the top-placed teams, would have involved another series of play-offs.

In Thursday's council meeting, MFA president Joe Mifsud gave a detailed review of the association's past attempts to maintain a high level of interest and this through the various reforms in the national league format, particularly the Premier League, the showcase of our game.

The downward trend of attendance in recent years showed that the present two-phase system of the 10-team Premier League, besides being beyond our means, population-wise, did not produce the desired competitivity. Moreover, the season was being stretched for the country's top players, what with European and domestic competitions.

Dr Mifsud argued that this left no room for players for proper physical and mental preparation and this had an adverse effect on their quality of play.

"Footballers are human beings and must have time to rest and enjoy normal life," Dr Mifsud said.

Fewer matches for the top teams without affecting regularity and continuity of fixtures, and the prospect of playing on natural grass were other considerations backing these proposals.

On top of that, Dr Mifsud stressed that while income from gates was dwindling, overall expenses were rising from year to year.

Repercussions

The president said that these other disturbing financial considerations resulted from the increasing overall costs for utilities, maintenance, police fees and other expenses such as the 3% increase in VAT, which the MFA is absorbing.

"The clubs will have to bear the consequences if an attempt to arrest this situation is not made. The common good of the game was to come before the interest of the clubs," Dr Mifsud stressed.

The interventions from the council members lasted quite some time, but it was evident that many still harboured inhibitions as to their reduced possibilities to form part of the top league if such a reform had to be given the go-ahead.

The vote was taken after almost three hours of discussion. The outcome showed that once again, as happened last season when a similar, though not perfectly identical reform proposal was presented, the reform did not meet the approval of the members.

Perhaps, the most striking aspect of the outcome of Thursday's vote was that among the representatives of the Premier League clubs, only two - Valletta's Paul Spiteri and Joe Sammut, of Pietà Hotspurs - voted in favour of the proposals. The council member of one prominent Premier League club was not even present.

In January, the Premier League Clubs' Standing Committee had reportedly agreed in principle to the proposed reforms for the national league but this position was clearly not reflected in Thursday's vote.

As things now stand, such a new system will have to resurface at a future date.