The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed that sport is not high on the priority list of the national authorities.

When it was announced, in March, that all sporting activities in the country would be suspended indefinitely due to the virus outbreak, sports organisations and athletes had no option but to take a forced break. All training venues were shut down while competitions were brought to a halt by a legal notice that barred all organised activities.

While for obvious health reasons one cannot argue against this decision, controversial as it may seem, what disappointed many was the fact that the sports community was left in the dark about the ongoing assessments being made by the health authorities regarding the possibility of training routines being resumed.

In almost every briefing or press conference that was addressed by either the prime minister, health minister or the superintendent for public health, sport was rarely mentioned.

Sport, like any sort of organised activity, needs planning. But often, when questions were asked about when athletes might possibly be able to start training again, very little information was divulged, much to the frustration of associations, clubs and administrators throughout the sector.

It was this lack of information, which the sporting public too was craving for, that killed off hopes of any sort of competition resuming in the near future.

Football is a particular case in point. In fact, the Malta Football Association ended up facing the wrath of several critics after bringing the 2019-20 season to an early end, mainly due to insufficient indications received from the health authorities about the possibility of lifting restrictions by July when the Premier League was planned to continue. The first outdoor sports facilities were reopened for training purposes late last month only on the insistence of SportMalta.

Granted, the progression of COVID-19 in the country could not be predicted with any certainty, and restarting the economy is understandably a higher priority. But this general lack of information at least about prospects for sport in relation to coronavirus confirms an established trend: lack of interest by the authorities.

This is rather baffling, especially when one considers the proven value of exercise in maintaining good health and the country’s high obesity rate among young children.

According to data issued by the National Statistics Office last March, 25 per cent of the Maltese population are overweight. Those numbers put our country well above the EU average of 14.9 per cent.

It is contradictory to promote sporting activity, particularly among children, and publicise the government’s investment in the technical preparation of the country’s elite athletes for overseas competition, when passivity marks the response of the authorities to the complete halt of the whole sporting movement.

Sport has never enjoyed a special status on any government’s agenda in this country.

This is mirrored, perhaps, in the fact that neither the Labour nor the Nationalist party in government have ever felt it necessary to appoint a minister dedicated solely to the sector in recent years. In fact, it has been more than three decades since we had a minister for sport; since then the industry has always fallen under a junior cabinet member.

Maltese sport and its federations and athletes deserve more respect and should be accorded higher regard for the value they offer society. Although their contribution to the economy may not be as strong as that of other sectors, sports’ input in helping to promote a healthier lifestyle, especially among the new generations, should be given better treatment.