Malta’s Sports Integrity CEO Jean Claude Micallef is facing court action over the alleged failure to pay a contractor engaged by his company Impel Communications Ltd.
Separately, the owner of Smash TV claims Micallef’s company failed to pay him for services worth thousands of euros.
The court case is over €19,629 being demanded for services related to a tender Micallef’s company won for the operation and management of advertising spaces on the Gozo Channel.
“This assistance included research, preparation of various documents, and supporting the company in securing the tender,” a court application seen by Times of Malta says.
It is alleged Micallef also failed to pay for services rendered after the successful tender bid that included managing the advertising concession.
The CEO of the Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport (AIMS) was taken to court after receiving a legal letter asking for payment, dated November 2024.
Meanwhile, Joe Baldacchino, the owner of the private television station Smash TV, alleges that he was left without payment from Micallef, who rented an Outside Broadcasting Unit in 2018.
The nine-month contract to rent the van for live broadcasting outside cost €400 a day, five days a week.
“I had been chasing him for a €20,000 deposit for several months. When he eventually gave me the cheque, it bounced,” Baldacchino said.
He said he took the mobile unit back about four months after the start of the rental agreement. Baldacchino said he reported the issue to the police and sent a legal letter requesting payment.
Lawyers representing Micallef told Times of Malta it was “not prudent” to comment on an ongoing court case, which they said was “not in the public interest”, while considering Baldacchino’s claims a “purely private business matter”.
Banned footballer
Earlier this month, Micallef denied engaging a footballer banned for life over match-fixing, despite a signed contract seen by Times of Malta indicating otherwise.
The contract of service shows that Jermain Brincat, who was found guilty of attempting to bribe a player in 2013, was engaged by AIMS last month to provide services related to video editing.
Times of Malta is informed that Brincat was contracted to provide Impel Communications with design and videography services for clients who were buying advertising space on the Gozo Channel.
Brincat was asked if he saw any conflict of interest in applying for a contract at AIMS given that he was doing work for Micallef’s private company.
Brincat said he did not.
“Personally, I don’t see any conflict of interest because I had no specific relationship with the person in question [Micallef].
“Unfortunately, Malta is so small that along the way everyone gets to know everyone,” Brincat added.
“I am a freelancer, so I was never engaged with anyone.”
Asked to specify his link to Micallef’s company, Brincat said: “I cannot comment on any private sector clients. I do not think that is something in the public interest.”
Micallef has vowed retribution against those who leaked the service agreement, telling Andrew Azzopardi’s RTK103 radio show, “Everyone will pay for what they tried to do to me”.
‘Purely a private business matter’
Asked about the alleged failure to pay the contractor in the Gozo Channel contract, Micallef’s legal representative told Times of Malta it was “not ethical or prudent” to comment on an ongoing case, “especially when such cases are not a matter of public interest”.
The representative said the company preferred to wait for the outcome of the case, “rather than turning this issue into some form of public controversy”.
Turning to Brincat’s relationship with the company, the representative said Brincat had “never been an employee” while stressing it could not release “commercially sensitive” information.
Meanwhile, he said the company considered any question of outstanding payments to Baldacchino’s media company a “purely private business matter and shall not be the subject of public discussion”.
“However, for clarification’s sake, the companies had a legal dispute, but the other party has never proceeded with its claim.”
OPM’s man of choice
Micallef was appointed as AIMS CEO last December after his predecessor, Luciano Busuttil, left the role as a result of a testy relationship with the authority’s board.
Micallef was the Office of the Prime Minister's man of choice for the position but his appointment was met with hostility by many on the AIMS board.
Sports Minister Clifton Grima tabled Micallef’s contract in parliament in January in response to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Albert Buttigieg.
The contract shows that Micallef is earning a basic yearly salary of €50,000 with a €1,000 annual increase. Micallef also has a €6,000 expense allowance, a €1,800 communication allowance, and the use of a car or a €4,658 transport allowance.
The contract also states that the Authority for Integrity in Maltese Sport can terminate the CEO if “he is habitually incompetent or insubordinate in the performance of his duties or shall willfully disregard the Authority’s regulation”.
The CEO’s contract can also be terminated if “the employee shall have willfully engaged in conduct which may be damaging to the reputation of the Authority, its employees, licensees or clients”.