More input from fans as Best Support contest revamped

As the 2007-08 season enters its final stages, the organisers of the Malta Football Awards yesterday kicked off the build-up for this year's edition with the launch of a revamped Best Support category during a news conference at the Corinthia Palace Hotel, Attard.

The Coca-Cola Zero Best Support award is the name of the prize that will honour the best following for a local football team throughout this season.

Sandro Micallef, director of Events Services, the organisers of the Melita Digital Football Awards, explained that the award, which forms part of Coca-Cola's Super Fan campaign, encompasses all teams in the local football pyramid, i.e. from the BOV Premier League down to the third division championship.

This 'new' accolade is essentially a joint-venture between the people behind the Football Awards and General Soft Drinks Ltd (GSD).

A new concept, probably inspired by the immense popularity of the Youtube website, has been put in place by the organisers and sponsors with the aim of spurring local football fans into taking an active part in this contest as well to encourage them to improve their support.

A new internet website, www.cokezero.com.mt, has been created to enable fans to submit and upload photos of their support during the 2007-08 season.

All video clips and photos will be posted on each club's individual page 12 hours after their receipt in order to ensure that they do not contain offensive imagery or language.

Martin Agius, sales and marketing manager at GSD Limited, said the aim of this new award is to pep up support in local stadia.

"This is the sixth year of our association with the Malta Football Awards," Agius said. "Having evaluated our collaboration with this event for the past years, we were keen on exploring ways of how to improve our association.

"In the past, our backing revolved around several key components of football, like the players, clubs and the MFA but this time we wanted to concentrate all our efforts on a very important stakeholder of the game, the supporters.

Seven-man jury

"The overriding purpose is to stimulate fans to capture all the beautiful aspects of support in the stands. This award is intended to enhance the passion for football support through its social values and the candidates will be judged on four main points - spontaneous outbursts of joy, celebrations after a goal, choreography and friendly behaviour and mutual respect between rival fans."

For his part, Micallef said that a seven-man jury has been appointed to assess all the material sent by the supporters. The members of the adjudicating panel are Peter Fenech, Malta FA vice-president, Joe Micallef, general secretary of the YFA, photo reporters Domenic Aquilina and Stephen Gatt, Tony Debono, ex-president of the MFA Supporters' Club, Police Superintendent Carmelo Bartolo and Sandro Micallef, chairperson of the Malta Football Awards.

The votes of the jury will account for 50 per cent of the overall result. The remaining allocation will be determined through the traditional SMS voting system whereby members of the public can indicate their preference by sending a text message to 5061 4914.

Voting by SMS will close on May 26. The winners of the Coca-Cola Zero Best Support Award will be announced during the presentation ceremony of the Malta Football Awards at the Corinthia Palace Hotel on June 6.

The first-placed fans' group will receive a Football Awards trophy plus €2,500 worth of stuff used to generate support on the stands. The second- and third-placed participants will earn €1,000 and €500 (in material) respectively.

Hibernians collected the Best Support accolade at last year's Malta Football Awards.