Government Whip faces disciplinary board for alleged threats to referees

Nationalist Parliamentary Whip David Agius will face a disciplinary hearing tomorrow at the Malta Basketball Association, where he is charged with threatening referees during a match last week.

The match was between Siġġiewi, of which he is president, and Athleta Basketball Association. Siġġiewi won the match 142-138 to lift the Louis Borg Cup.

Mr Agius is alleged to have uttered insults during the match and threatened the referees while they were making their way to the dressing room during half-time.

In a letter of complaint to the MBA, David Schembri, general secretary of Athleta Basketball Association, claimed Mr Agius’s insults aimed at the game officials affected their judgment during the rest of the match. This resulted in poor calls to the detriment of his club and eventually led to its defeat.

When contacted, Mr Agius vehemently denied the claims and instead accused Mr Schembri of breaching the MBA’s rules and regulations by divulging information to the media.

In his letter, Mr Schembri claimed what Mr Agius had done was “highly unethical, improper and against the spirit of the game. It is even more worrisome that (Mr Agius) followed the game officials and continued to insult (them) on their way to the changing rooms at the half-time interval, at which point he implied that they were not fit to officiate the game and also implied that when the proper officials officiate the games which Siġġiewi take part in, Siġġiewi always win.”

He called on the MBA to take disciplinary action against Mr Agius for “intimidating the match officials”.

In his reaction, Mr Agius, who was elected MBA vice president in March, denied the claims. He said that what Mr Schembri and Athleta Basketball Association were doing was “sour grapes” because they had lost the match.

“The minor incident of disagreeing with the referees’ calls (as is the norm in many sports) was so minor that there was no report lodged by any MBA official, referee, game commissioner, police officials or media reporters, who were all present during the game,” he said.

Mr Agius added that no basketball official was insulted at any time during the game. This was confirmed by the fact that no report was submitted by any of the three referees, three table officials and more than four members of the Presidents Council present, he added.

Upon being notified about his disciplinary hearing to be held tomorrow afternoon, Mr Agius said that, according to the rules, the hearing cannot be held after a competitive game. However, the association was quick to reply that this only applied for players or a club, and that he was to appear before the disciplinary board.

This would not be the first time the temperamental MP lost his cool during a basketball match. In November 2009, spectators witnessed what they thought was just another random argument, peppered with foul language. One of the protagonists to lose his temper was Mr Agius. Eyewitnesses said two policemen had to intervene to calm down Mr Agius, who was using obscene language.

Asked whether he regretted losing his temper during that match, Mr Agius answered: “Isn’t it obvious that I regret it? But afterwards everyone’s sorry.”