The Malta Football Association has set up an internal anti-money laundering body to suggest ways to stamp out suspected financial crime.  

The new Advisory Committee on anti-money laundering will be made up of professionals in the financial field. It will suggest measures to strengthen the MFA’s fight on financial crime on and off the pitch.  

Announcing the new committee, MFA president Bjorn Vassallo said that good governance has been at the forefront of his electoral mandate and also ranked high on the association’s new strategy, unveiled earlier this year.

The MFA said it will soon be heightening due diligence process on football clubs. 

Donations, loans, and sponsorships will have to be declared and the source of funds clearly identified as par of the reform.  

In a meeting with reporters at the end of the MFA’s executive committee meeting on Thursday, association president Bjorn Vassallo said the association was stepping up the fight against financial crime.  

The MFA, he said, was revising its statute that it said would lead to “radical changes”. 

“First and foremost, let me say that the absolute majority of officials in the football community are upstanding and do what they do out of love for the game. Football is no different to other facets of life and we need to continue to strength governance structures,” he said.

Vassallo said that the corporate restructuring will lead to a change in club ownership that will see clubs becoming private companies according to the level of licensing they attain.

“We are now in the process of approaching a number of persons within the football family who we believe are very competent on the matter and hopefully they will accept to form part of this advisory board,” Vassallo said.

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