Malta players lose training perks

National team players will stop receiving training benefits from the Malta FA after the friendly international against Switzerland on February 9.

The sweeping reforms to what was widely known as the National Team Professional Scheme were communicated to the senior and Under-21 national players at a meeting held on Tuesday evening at the Centenary Hall, Ta’ Qali.

Well-placed sources told The Times that Norman Darmanin Demajo, the Malta Football Association president, made an elaborate speech in which he highlighted the initial objectives of the training scheme, which was introduced way back in the 1980s, and the long-felt need to adapt the strategy to the realities and trends of modern-day football.

It is believed that, in announcing that the Malta FA will stop paying training allowance to the members of the national and Under-21 squads, Darmanin Demajo stressed that playing for one’s country is a matter of pride and passion.

He reportedly appealed to the players present not to treat training with the Malta squad as if it were a part-time job because national team duty is not about money.

Although the Malta FA have spent hundreds of thousands of euros in training allowances, appearance money and performance bonuses in the last decade, the message Darmanin Demajo sought to get across was that the abolition of the training allo-wance was not tantamount to a cost-cutting measure.

As part of the overhaul of the training scheme, the Malta FA have pledged to increase the appearance money and match bonuses for the national team players.

Darmanin Demajo also spoke about the Malta FA’s efforts to enhance the element of pride attached to the national teams and reminded the ‘elite’ players of their responsibilities to lead by example.

The MFA’s decision to withdraw training benefits didn’t go down well with the national team players, given that they currently get around €25 net for every training session.

Yet, Darmanin Demajo’s announcement last Tuesday is unlikely to have taken the players by surprise as they had already heard rumours about the impending changes.

One senior player, who didn’t wish to be named, said the initial reaction was understandably negative as, in most cases, the training allowance compensated the players for lost income, especially in the morning.

This particularly applied to those players who have to take time off from work to turn up for training and those who are self-employed.

It is understood that in his address, the Malta FA president alluded to the fact that the members of national team’s pool are non-amateur players who receive monthly wages from their respective clubs.

Last September, the association announced that it had reached an agreement with the coaches and top officials of the 10 Premier League clubs to reduce the number of training sessions for the national squad from four to three per week – one on Monday morning and two on Tuesday.

The players in the senior and Under-21 squads, the national coaches and Robert Gatt, the MFA technical director, were present for Tuesday’s meeting which lasted just over an hour.

Bjorn Vassallo, the Malta Football Association CEO and the association’s three vice-presidents, Carmelo Bartolo, Alex Manfrè and Ludovigo Micallef, were also in attendance.