“By his death, football in Malta has lost a loyal servant.” This is how the impact of the loss of Carmelo Scicluna, who passed away 70 years ago today, was described in his obituary. Conferred with sobriquets like ‘Mr Football’ or ‘King of Soccer’ and affectionately known as ‘Is-Sur Memé tal-Ground’, Scicluna was the mastermind, owner and general manager of the Empire Sports Ground and the Empire Stadium, in Gżira.

Before football, sports activities and the entertainment realm became his main line of business, he worked at Messrs A.G. Simonds (which later partnered with Farsons as Simonds Farsons Ltd). However, his childhood passion for the ‘beautiful game’ never left him, so much so that he later took up the management of the Mile End Sports Ground, in Ħamrun.

This was his first direct contact with the administrative field of football. It was a responsibility he continued to fulfil even after he ventured into his very own ambitious project, which was the building in 1922 of the Empire Sports Ground, designed according to FIFA regulations.

The players of HMS Ajax and Pick Malta XI before the start of the inaugural match of the Empire Sports Ground on November 4, 1922. Photo: The Grand Studio, Malta; Scicluna Family Archives

Athletics display by the navy at the Empire Sports Ground. Photo: Richard Ellis; Scicluna Family Archives

Melita Sports Club from Tunis and United Services teams at the Empire Sports Ground where they played on April 30, 1923. Photo: The Grand Studio, Malta; Scicluna Family Archives

Leaving no stone unturned, Scicluna endeavoured to give rise to a well-equipped venue that suitably catered both for professional and amateur players as well as spectators who gravitated to this football hub in their thousands. In 1933, it was replaced by the upgraded state-of-the-art Empire Stadium that was set on the standards of contemporary stadia on the continent.

Fast becoming a huge attraction and turning the quiet suburb of Gżira into a vibrant town as well as a flourishing industrial node, both the Empire Sports Ground and the Empire Stadium were witness to many firsts, all credit to the entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit of Scicluna. In April 1923, he brought Tunis’s Melita FC, the very first foreign team to set foot in Malta. The 1922-1923 season, which dawned on the newly inaugurated Empire Sports Ground, opened its doors to the first ever football championship.

Another novelty were the Christmas and Easter tournées he organised from the mid-1920s, which soon became staple events in the football calendar. In no time, they were the rage among the increasingly growing football enthusiasts who were given the golden opportunity to watch some of the crème de la crème central and eastern European teams in action.

Among the many were SK Haj­duks Split, Tottenham Hotspur, SK Plzen, Zabrovesky, Wiener SC, Chelsea FC and Ferencvaros, who exposed football buffs to continental football tactics. They made a refreshing change from the British style displayed by the teams of the Malta-stationed navy and army services.

The Empire Stadium soon after its official inauguration on December 24, 1933. This photo shows the Cassar Cup final match, Sliema Wanderers vs Hibernians. Photo: Scicluna Family Archives

The crowd-pulling Empire Stadium in its heyday. Photo: Scicluna Family Archives

In 1951, one year short of his demise, Scicluna installed overhead floodlighting at the Empire Stadium, which had never before been implemented on the island. This meant that football matches could be held in the evening.

Indeed, the sky over Scicluna was most certainly the limit.

Apart from the crowd-pulling tournée friendlies, many played under the legendary “sajf tas-Sur Memé”. Scicluna’s football enclosures hosted many matches bet­ween civilian and British military teams, local championship leagues and trophy cup fixtures.

For 30 years of his life, until his death, Memé’s pitches were the breeding ground for the formation and grooming of Maltese players and were most the catalysts that exponentially ge­ne­ra­ted the Maltese love for the game. Guided by foresight, while inspired by a sense of daring, Scicluna was instrumental in placing Maltese football on the international map and made it his personal mission to bring football in Malta unprecedentedly into its own.

An advert in the Daily Malta Chronicle of August 31,1934, of a dance with a live orchestra at the Empire Stadium. Newspaper cutting from the Scicluna Family Archives

One of the many circus companies that Scicluna brought to the Mile End Sporting Ground, the Empire Sports Ground and the Empire Stadium. Photo: Scicluna Family Archives

Scicluna’s unflagging acumen prompted him to forever conjure up new ideas. One of them was to broaden the recreational scope of his venues to include athletics, boxing, wrestling, carnival festivi­ties, foreign circuses, thea­tre shows, operetti, horse and donkey contests, motorcycle, pony and greyhound racing and scouts and girl guide jamborees under the distinguished patronage of Lord Baden Powell.

Consequently, the Empire Sports Ground and Empire Stadium attendances extended beyond diehard football fans and accommodated families and spectacle aficionados from all walks of life. This broad repertoire of activities for public entertainment secured social and econo­mic enhancement for the Gżira community. It is no wonder that, in 1948, Scicluna was made first president of the newly founded Mount Carmel Band Club, in Gżira.

Scicluna’s Order of the British Empire insignia awarded in 1945. Photo: Scicluna Family Collection

Another feather in Memé’s cap was the continued organisation of non-competitive matches at the Empire Stadium during World War II. These brought some respite to the then turbulent times, thus helping to keep the general morale elevated. During this disruptive period, Memé was entreated to serve his war-stricken country as protection officer in Gżira and later as regional protection officer in Sliema.

The enterprising Scicluna was most certainly the game changer for the development of Malta’s popular culture and football scenario during the first half of the 20th century. For this, he was nationally acknowledged: in 1945, he was awarded the prestigious title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

However, the greatest honour bestowed upon Memé was extraordinary esteem. He was loved by the residents of Gżira where he lived and operated, by the inhabitants of Sliema, his birthplace, by his employees, by those involved in and outside the football field, by the thousands who thronged the Empire Sports Ground and Empire Stadium, by the many charities he was a philanthropist for and, of course, by his wife, the late Elvira née Testaferrata Moroni Viani, who bore him five children.

Scicluna’s funeral cortège on December 4, 1952. Photo: Scicluna Family Archives

Joseph Scicluna receiving the award of the Malta Olympic Hall of Fame on behalf of his father, Carmelo Scicluna, from the former President of the Malta Olympic Committee, the late Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, in 2003. Photo: Scicluna Family Archives

Further testimony to the eminence Scicluna meritoriously earned throughout his lifetime was his grand funeral, that was nothing short of a state service. In the Times of Malta of December 5, 1952 we read that “many people lined the route of the funeral cortège and numerous floral tributes were sent by all sections and classes of the community”.

Etched in Malta’s sports and football history and inscribed in the Malta Olympic Hall of Fame, Scicluna left a tremendous legacy. So when passing through Pjazza Memé Scicluna, in Gżira you may wish to briefly stop by his memorial bust and pay homage to this intrepid personality.

Portrait bust of Carmelo Scicluna (2002) by the late Joseph Chetcuti in Pjazza Memé Scicluna, Gżira