New rules to safeguard young players

Fr Hilary Tagliaferro will continue to lead the Youth Football Association (YFA) for the next two years as his president's seat was uncontested during an annual general meeting held recently.

Apart from the election of a new council, which also had Joe Micallef retaining his post as secretary general, the meeting saw delegates voting in favour of various proposals to the association's statute.

The amendments mainly dealt with a new code of ethics aimed at ensuring that persons convicted of child abuse offences are barred from holding any position within the nurseries affiliated with the Youth FA.

Nurseries not abiding with these new rules could be suspended for an indefinite period of time and handed a hefty Lm1,000 fine, a statement signed by Media Officer Frans Zammit said.

In 2006/07, the Youth FA will be celebrating its 25th anniversary and a series of activities are planned to mark the occasion.

As from next season, all matches from the U-14 and U-16 championships, sponsored by APS Bank, will be played on artificial turf pitches.

Matches will be held at the Luxol Ground, St Aloysius College, the HAM complex, San Gwann and Tarxien.

The Pepsi Festivals have been included in the Youth FA 2006/07 calendar for a fourth successive year.