No comment by MFA on Education Ministry letter

The Education Ministry is waiting for a reply from the Malta Football Association as to why children from the Guzè D'Amato secondary school, in Paola, were being forbidden from using Pace Grasso ground.

Access to the ground, which the school used as a recreation area, was barred after the MFA decided to stop employing a groundsman - a convicted paedophile - at the end of the season, on May 7. The groundsman's employment had been heavily criticised by Joe Gerada, CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services.

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi raised the issue in Parliament on Tuesday and said the MFA had no title over the soccer ground in Paola and had no right to bar the use of the ground to the students.

A spokesman said the Education Ministry wrote to the MFA last week about the matter but was still waiting for a reply. Contacted yesterday, MFA president Joe Mifsud said he was abroad and could not comment about what Dr Azzopardi said in Parliament as he had not heard or read his comments.

Asked why the MFA was stopping school children from using the ground, Dr Mifsud said the MFA has no one to oversee them while they are there and so decided not to let them use it anymore.

He would not comment about whether the MFA received the letter by the Education Ministry and what they intended to do about it.