The Malta Football Association is planning to launch the Fondazzjoni ‘Inħobb il-Futbol’ in a bid to boost the developing sector of the ‘Beautiful Game’ here, president Bjorn Vassallo announced yesterday.

Speaking during the association’s annual general meeting, Vassallo said that the foundation is being earmarked to improve the grassroots sector, football in schools and local communities, women’s football, futsal and beach soccer.

“The next 12 months are set to be a year of transition so that the responsibilities of the Youth FA will pass onto the foundation so that a new strategy, based on performance, will be implemented,” the MFA chief said.

“The foundation will be focusing on three different aspects that will lead towards a bigger and wider participation to help in the journey of a football player from the grassroots to the elite level and to provide everything necessary from the safeguarding of players to the coaches education.

“Football in Malta and in Gozo can’t afford to have any of these aspects not well co-ordinated if we are to reach our goal.”

Vassallo said that 2020 turned out to be a difficult year as the Covid-19 pandemic hit hard the world.

The MFA chief said that the next 12 months are set to be a very challenging period and he vowed to work even harder to ensure Maltese football will start making strides forward.

“To this aim, in October we are planning to publish a document that will have the MFA strategy written,” Vassallo said.

“This is being done in collaboration with UEFA and through several meetings with several stakeholders. This strategy will hopefully lead the MFA towards established objectives that will help us to a better operate, administration and overall performance.

“I also believe that the input of our three vice-presidents should be used better and after holding talks with them, we have agreed that they will be taking up responsibilities in a number of specific areas and that will ensure more focused work in various areas.”

Vassallo said that the Malta FA had lined up three fundamental technical projects.

“One of the projects has been already launched another is still being studied while we were forced to put on ice the other (Lega Pro project),” he said.

“The work in the technical centre is focused on having national teams that reflect one football philosophy that gives us an identity and is based on the characteristics of our players. We have invested in specialised resources and we set out important goals as we believe that we can do better in development and technique if we follow the plan set out by our experts in this camp.

“We need to work together, be patient and support the work with the needed resources so that the legacy of this mandate will be to see our national team winning matches.”

Finances

The Malta Football Association published its financial report for the year ending March 31, 2020.

The financial report, presented by Malta FA treasurer Ivan Mizzi and approved during meeting, showed a total operating income of €8.9 million for season 2019-20 while the total expenditure reached €9.6 million.

A total of €3.2 million of the association’s expenditure was spent on domestic competitions and assistance to clubs. Apart from domestic competitions, travel and accommodation expenses for the national teams at all levels, wages, sports facilities and maintenance account for a significant portion of the Association’s expenditure.

On the other hand, the association’s main income sources were UEFA grants (€3.1 million), TV rights (€2.5 million), sports facilities (€942,000) and FIFA Forward (€700,0000).

The association also received an extraordinary grant of €4.5 million under the UEFA Hat-Trick Five programme.

In season 2019-20, the Malta FA maintained its social responsibility commitment as 20 NGOs benefited from financial donations and other assistance under the Football For Life programme, amounting to €86,000.

During the AGM, the elections of the Council Members in representation of Member Clubs were held.

Four candidates were in the running for the two posts, namely Jesmond Abela, Peter Fenech, Chris Grech and Chris Muscat.

In the end it was Abela who topped the poll with 54 votes ahead of Chris Grech on 51.