Police probe fresh claims of corruption in football

The Malta Football Association has received a number of new anonymous letters over the past couple of weeks alleging bribery and match-fixing, which are being looked into by the police in their ongoing investigations.

MFA vice-president Peter Fenech said four or five new letters had surfaced recently, adding to a number of others that the association had received over the past few months.

He could not say precisely how many letters the association had received in all but said that most of them had detailed information that could prove useful to the police.

He said the letters had probably not been sent by the same person since they contained information of different kinds.

When pressed to give a number, he said that in total the association had received no more than 20 letters.

He said the policy of the MFA was to pass everything on to the police, although it would also carry out its own investigations.

The newspaper KullHadd yesterday reported that a letter detailing no fewer than 20 cases of corruption was being investigated by the police. It added that most of the allegations were related to matches in the Premier League, with some going back to September 2008 and others having been played only a few weeks ago.

Recently, corruption in Maltese football has been lifted into the spotlight, with a number of high profile and unrelated court cases involving players, club officials and referees.

On Saturday, referee Pierre Saliba from Ħamrun was handed a two-year suspended sentence after he admitted to attempting to fix a decisive match for one of the top six spots in the local championship pool.

Mr Saliba was the second referee suspended by the MFA after the suspension of former referee Joe Attard and Albanian coach Ilir Pelinku over an attempt to rig the UEFA Cup game between Marsaxlokk and Croatian team Slaven Belupo last year.

Earlier this month, Marsaxlokk's assistant coach Peter Hartshorne and player Claude Mattocks admitted offering a bribe to Msida St Joseph goalkeeper Matthew Camilleri, who declined it.

They were later suspended indefinitely by the MFA and are due for court sentencing tomorrow.

In December, two players of Division One club St George's, Andrea Gatt and Lawrence Mizzi, were handed suspended sentences for bribery while Vittoriosa Stars vice-president Manwel Ancillieri is currently facing court proceedings on a similar charge.

During a recent press conference, MFA president Joe Mifsud promised to toughen the association's anti-corruption stance by coming up with new regulations, so that people who are found guilty of bribery will be held liable for damages.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com