The reason why football is such a popular sport is because it could be enjoyed by everybody... you don't have to be a footballer to participate.
There are those who play and others who simply enjoy watching the game. Whether at the stadium or in front of television, one can participate either by playing, watching, as a club official, referee or a journalist.
Any one of these five roles is important and without them the game would lose its attraction. The subject of this week's article played football but it was as a journalist that he made his mark.
Tom Hedley can be considered as one of the pioneers of Maltese football. He was not among the first to kick a ball but was certainly one of the first to make sports journalism his livelihood. Hedley gave an important contribution to the game, first as a player and later as a journalist.
Hedley was born in Tarxien on April 12, 1906 to a Gozitan mother and an English father. He was educated at the Floriana Garrison School. These schools were scattered all over the island and they offered education to the children of service personnel stationed in Malta.
The Floriana Garrison School had a very good football team and won the schools league on a number of occasions. Tom and his elder brother, Charlie, were regular members of this team and we can say that it was there that Hedley made his first bow in the game.
Hedley continued his education at Flores College and the Dockyard. Both institutions had their football teams where Tom could continue his sporting activities.
A fine sportsman, Hedley was one of the founder members and players of the famous amateur club, Floriana Tigers. He played regularly for the Tigers in the 1920s when the team dominated amateur football in Malta.
Tom then went on to make a name for himself as a journalist.
At the Dockyard, where he worked for seven years, Hedley edited The Weekly Lyre. He joined the Daily Malta Chronicle as a sports editor before becoming leader writer and night editor.
When the Chronicle ceased to exist in 1940 he joined the Times of Malta where he occupied various posts before becoming chief editor in 1950. He resigned in 1965.
He also served as Reuters' war correspondent in the event of an invasion attempt on Malta and also as the Daily Mail correspondent during World War II.
In 1966, Hedley was appointed editor of The Malta Observer.
During his long journalistic career, he excelled as a sports writer covering several important events. In sporting circles he was best noted for his series, 'Follow the Bouncing Ball' also published in The Sunday Times between 1943 and 1946 and also for his other series, 'Before I Forget' published in The Sunday Times in 1943.
Both series focused on how football was played in the 1920s and 1930s when the game was the main source of entertainment for the Maltese.
His flowing style of writing and his attention to detail make these two collections of articles an important source of information about the game on our islands.
Hedley was also a member of the Institute of Journalists in London, and of the International Press Institute of Geneva. Versatile as ever, Hedley also published the historical novel, Duello.