Andorra calling

The Games of the Small States of Europe are less than two months away and yet a conspicuous silence seems to have gripped this event.

The recent squabble between the Malta Olympic Committee and the Kunsill Malti ghall-Isport seems to have taken its toll as at one point in time, the MOC even threatened that it would pull out of Andorra '05. As a consequence many athletes were left in the dark.

With the clock weighing down, the MOC has to make some serious decisions as to who will be travelling to Andorra.

Two years ago, local sport experienced what I term as a natural high. People flocked to the venues to cheer the athletes and results were forthcoming. With the exception of volleyball, all other disciplines yielded medals and Malta obtained its best ever GSSE result.

Following this success, local sport was adversely hit by a string of events. Pippo Psaila resigned and a cold feud developed between the MOC and the KMS that culminated in the recent outburst that had

Dr George Abela acting as a mediator to bring the two parties together.

I have often stressed that this year Malta will experience the same fate as in 1995. Following the 1993 success on home soil, the Maltese travelled to Luxembourg two years later and returned home with only one gold medal.

I shrug to imagine that such a scenario can happen again. The Andorra organisers have rightly adjusted the calendar of sport to suit their needs.

Sailing and squash, by far our two most successful disciplines in 2003, have been axed and replaced with cycling and taekwondo.

With Dave Millar out of the reckoning, it is hard to imagine our cyclists winning a medal in Andorra while our representatives in taekwondo will be threading on unknown territory as this is the first time ever that this sport has been introduced to the GSSE.

Team sport has always been an issue for us Maltese and although in the first few editions of the Games, Malta were successful in the men's basketball competition, this performance slowly began to fizzle out to the extent that in Andorra the men's basketball team and the volleyball squads could not be present at all.

Meanwhile, the women's basketball team will be facing the pressure of having to defend the gold medal which they won two years ago.

Athletics is perhaps the most promising discipline although it remains to be seen whether Tanya Blake will be included in the squad or not.

Following her dismal performance in the Athens Olympics, very little has been forthcoming on this athlete who won two gold and two silvers for Malta two years ago. Even Rachid Chouhal, who won gold in the long jump, is no longer a household name in local athletics.

In judo, we have to win at least a gold medal to make up for the results of two years ago when our judokas failed to top the list in any category.

At that time, the association was going through a metamorphosis with some new names entering the fold. Two years later, and hopefully wiser, our athletes should manage something better.

In swimming, our lone performer could possibly be Angela Galea, a whisker away from winning Malta's first ever gold in the pool.

Shooting always looks a bright prospect. However, much depends on the shooters' mood on the day. Tennis and table-tennis may yield a surprise or two but then again it all depends on the build-up of our athletes ahead of the GSSE.

I will not delve into the issue of how many medals our athletes will win but it looks like our tally this time will be much less than that of 2003. However, it is high time that somebody comes forward and hints that this time round, a tough assignment awaits us in Andorra.

The financial aid allocated by government was not as generous as it has been in past years.

This will leave a negative impact on the technical programme outlined by the MOC.

I still contend that we are adopting a fire-fighting technique in sport.

Medium term strategy has always been and will always be absent. Till then, we can only bask in isolated moments of illusion that only serve to remind us that we are lagging miles behind the likes of Cyprus, Iceland and Luxembourg.

Ir-Referi

I recently received the fourth issue of this interesting magazine published by the Malta Football Referees Association.

The publication is a link between refereeing and the various stakeholders. It pays tribute to the work carried out by officials, who week in week out provide their services for the good of the game.

Refereeing at top level is a stressful job. Anders Frisk's decision to call it quits made headlines across Europe and led UEFA to issue a strongly-worded statement condemning all those within the football family who through their actions jeopardise the security of match officials and their families.

I liked reading Benny Pace's contribution on the history of refereeing in Malta through the 60s and 70s. I have to confess that I have no idea whether any books have been penned by local authors that trace our history of referees.

Perhaps the MFRA should embark on this project. Such publication will definitely earn its place in the mel-itensia. Meanwhile, I urge the association to keep up its good work.

Sports journalism course

The Ghaqda Kittieba Sports, in collaboration with the Tumas Fenech Foundation and the Institute of Maltese Journalists, is organising a week-long course focusing on different themes of sports journalism including media and the law, information technology and the correct use of the Maltese language in the print media.

This is another attempt by the organisation to help sports journalists, in particular those part-time newcomers who never had any formal training in media-related topics to improve their skills in this field.

The Ghaqda Kittieba Sport is a purely voluntary and non-profit organisation which has been safeguarding the rights of sports journalists since 1970.

The association has been through ups and downs and needs more hard-working individuals who are willing to dedicate some of their available time for the good cause of sports journalism.

Hopefully, the response will be strong and that media agencies will start asking for some form of accreditation by recognised bodies before employing people in the field.