No need for an instant replay

As the World Cup took centre stage over the past weeks, we witnessed several questionable refereeing decisions or no calls that have brought renewed cries by many for the use of instant replays. England scored a perfectly legitimate goal which was not awarded and Argentina was awarded one that was clearly offside. In a flash, the world came alight with discussions on the pros and cons of instant replay on the pitch to help referees avoid mistakes.

As an international basketball referee, where the use of video replay is allowed, albeit only in special circumstances, I am following the matter with interest. However, as chairman of Malta Sports Council (KMS) there is a clear goal which does not require instant replay in my books: the creation of the White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village.

I have seen it live at the launch of the project at the Prime Minister's Office in Castille and there is definitely no need for me to see an instant replay.

It is a clear goal for Maltese sports and we should be celebrating it on the turf with all Maltese athletes and their supporters. The White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village is what we, sports people, have all been waiting for in every sense of the word.

For starters, it will be a centre of activity for 40 different sports disciplines in one place, offering the respective associations and their members a place to practise, to organise events and meetings.

In addition, from the information already made public at the project launch, it is very appar-ent that this project will give Maltese athletes the best sports facilities they could ever have hoped for.

Better still, in the interesting business model which is to be adopted, it will be the investors who will be paying not only for building and maintaining the sports facilities in top shape but also for upgrading them over the entire term of the lease.

Again, no Maltese sportsman or sportswoman needs to see this goal replayed.

At KMS, we know well enough how many millions of euros we fork out every year to maintain the current sports facilities, none of which is anywhere close to the size of the facilities to be handed at White Rocks.

The vision underpinning the White Rocks Sport & Leisure Village is wider and more innovative still.

The local sports community has built a wide network of contacts with sports associations and teams around the world. Over the years, quite a number of them have expressed the wish to hold training camps or their international competitions here.

Given the level of our facilities, however, such requests could not be acceded to so far.

The unfortunate result has been that a barrier has been built around most local sports disciplines, preventing them from interacting with their international counterparts on Maltese soil.

The White Rocks project will instantly dissolve this barrier into the blue Mediterranean sea. Once this project is finished, doors will be open to all sorts of possibilities. Foreign teams could come and spend a week training here.

International sports organisations could consider Malta for hosting their competitions. Maltese sportsmen and women would benefit greatly from this exposure to international practitioners in their respective disciplines. Not to mention the added dividends to the country by way of sports tourism.

I have had the pleasure to experience, at first hand, some of the outstanding sport facilities designed by FaulknerBrowns, the project's architects.

I can vouch for their quality. In the past years, I have visited the EIS centres in Manchester and Sheffield and, only last year, I returned again to Sheffield where I had the opportunity to referee the Great Britain vs Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball European Championship qualifier.

Next month, I will experience another sports facility designed by the same architects when I will referee the Great Britain vs Ukraine European qualifier at the Guildford Sports Park at the University of Surrey.

In my 14 years as an international referee, I have officiated in numerous modern arenas and had always dreamt of having a similar top-class facility in my home country. The White Rocks project will make this possible and I am sure that high quality European events, including basketball-related ones, would eventually be held here too.

Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, has a tough nut to crack solving the issue of instant replay on the pitch at the next World Cup in Brasil.

We in the Maltese sports world, on the other hand, do not need a replay of the White Rocks Sports and Leisure Village proposal. We are absolutely certain of what we saw live already. This project will herald a new dawn for Maltese sport. Let's augur that the same financial model is adopted to accommodate the needs of other sport disciplines such as motor sport and shooting sport.

The author is chairman of the Malta Sports Council.