MOC persist in omitting facts
Bernard Vassallo, chairman Kunsill Malti għall-iSport, writes:
With reference to the letter published in The Times 'MOC Reiterates Stance on Technical Preparation Budget' the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport (KMS) is pleased to note that the Maltese Olympic Committee (MOC) corrected a few of the wrong impressions that might have been induced during Tuesday's press conference at Tal-Qroqq.
The MOC, at last, admitted that the allocated budget towards Olympic sport is actually closer to the KMS's version of €2.5 million rather than the €300,000 mentioned by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco.
However, we are still disappointed that the MOC persists in omitting certain facts that would have presented a more realistic picture of the situation.
As the MOC knows, KMS spends almost half of the €2.5m allocated, i.e. €1.2m yearly, on the running of sports facilities. So, the sum is actually part of the technical preparation budget as there can be no such preparation without operational amenities.
Contrary to what has been suggested, the €2.5m invested yearly on Olympic sports excludes the capital on new facilities.
For instance, in a few months' time the KMS will invest another €3.1m in the Kirkop complex. We have also kicked off the process to build a new complex in St Paul's Bay and finalised a Master Plan for the Marsa sport facilities.
This investment of millions of euros is for some unknown reason consistently ignored by the MOC.
So, taking into consideration that the figures they mentioned were correct, we insist that our allocated budget remains significantly higher than that of San Marino, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
The MOC also refrained from any reference whatsoever to the 20/20 Training Scheme and now, what's worse, they seek to belittle the same incentive.
These are the real facts:
• Seven out of the 21 GSSE medals for Malta were won by athletes integrated in the 20/20 Scheme.
• As the MOC pointed out, only seven athletes benefited from the scheme. However, what the MOC are failing to mention is that we approved all their requests and there were only seven applications.
• True, the 20/20 scheme has only been in operation for a couple of months. However, it has to be said that we had unsuccessfully chased the MOC since August 2008 to start the project.
• The MOC also failed to mention that gold medallist William Chetcuti is actually a KMS/government employee who has been training full-time for the last four years.
Facts are sacred... so I stick to facts. Now, let one and all judge and be judged.
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V Battistino
Jun 12th 2009, 18:45
@ R Muscat well i have worked directly with athletes since 1989 in a professional capacity .........my comments are not aimed at the athletes.....and they know it......unfortunately they are the scapegoats and after 'their' results, comments about funding and training facilities etc etc crop up.....however, as once said to me " success has many fathers while failure is an orphan "...my remarks are aimed squarely at the administrators of local sport, not just for negative criticsm's sake, but for a real shake-up in the mentality which we really need.......we are competing against a professional mentality yet we persist in our amateur approach.......seeing just one of the athletics finals in Cyprus on TV, you could not help but cry....four athletes at the start - 2 each from Cyprus and Iceland...and you call these worthwhile Games ?......by the way, I was one of the few who stood up for Nicolai Portelli on this blog during the Olympic Games......and he was probably the best local one in Cyprus !
R. Muscat
Jun 12th 2009, 12:52
Have you ever been an athlete yourself?
V Battistino
Jun 12th 2009, 10:25
...to all our sports journalists.....stop being 'kronisti' and start using your expertise to criticise where necessary......we lack hard criticism under the guise of .."protecting our athletes who carry all the hard work against all odds " well that may be true but we have to keep on encouraging them by showing them that they are being watched closely to mark progress and not only to provide empathy and fraternity.....
Pippo Psaila's article in another english local newspaper is also valid......a lot of technical mistakes might have been done and I feel that people should be held accountable...we have to stop protecting the non-performers and here I am referring to all !!
Politicians are sidelined every five years - others are not ! Now how's that for democracy ?
V Battistino
Jun 12th 2009, 10:09
It is interesting to note that since 1998, post GSSE, everytime the results are out and they are somewhat negative, its always the Gov't and KMS who are to blame...only in post Malta 2003 this did not happen.....various chairman of the KMS have had this thrown at them....
In sport, there are cycles but these seem non existant locally.....we have people managing for a long number of years..almost stuck to their seats ! Are we givingspace to administrators with fresh ideas ? And this at all levels - from associations to the top most ranks. Electing people to posts might not be conducive to getting technical results.
The KMS was borne and bred to allocate funds for the betterment of sport, amongst other things. Unless these funds are spent in the right manner, with the right people, then the situation will never change.
The question remains whether we are spending in the right manner .....what about all the injuries ? how come we still claim today (heard on the live transmissions) that our athletes peak later than the Games ? what serious audit is undertaken to check associations on the progress attained ?..........to be continued