Msida St Joseph official hit by 10-match ban
Four players suspended
Four Premier League players received a one-match ban yesterday but it was the punishment meted out to an official of Msida St Joseph that most caught the eye.
Martin Micallef has been banned for a total of 10 matches for verbally abusing referee Chris Lautier during Msida's 3-0 defeat to Sliema Wanderers last weekend.
Qormi have two players on the suspensions list as Massimo Grima and Anatole Debono have been banned after both collected a fourth yellow card in their team's 4-1 upset to Ħamrun Spartans.
Valletta midfielder Edmond Agius and Floriana defender Julian Briffa were also handed a one-match ban as the caution they received in Friday's derby was their fourth.
Division One replay
The Malta FA has announced that the replay between Division One rivals Vittoriosa Stars and St George's is to take place next Wednesday at the Hibs Ground (kick-off 6.30 p.m.).
The first-round derby, played in the last week of December, finished 3-2 in favour of Vittoriosa but the MFA Protests Board recently decreed that the match be replayed after St George's filed a protest against the result following the conviction of two of their players for bribery.
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Demis Scerri
Feb 26th 2009, 10:41
With reference to the game St. Georges vs Vittoriosa Stars, shame on the MFA for letting this to happen. Dr. Mifsud promised us that all corruption cases will be tackled with maximum penalties. In our case (of St. George's), we had two players which admitted in court that they were given money before the game by the vice-president of Vittoriosa Stars. What is happening now is that we have lost two of our players since they are suspended for bribery, instead of giving us a win of 3-0 we have to play again the game on 04/03/09 which is just 4 days before our derby with Senglea. Also, there might be the risk that we might loose this game and also we might end up with some injuries as well. Anyway, my point is that it is definetaly not fair on St. Georges football club that instead of being compensated we ended up the victims in this case. The MFA Protest Board should have waited for the outcome of the final court hearing before deciding to replay the game.