New awards in Replay Gala Night
Special recognitions to retired referee and player
There will be three new awards in this year’s The Gram Collections Replay Gala Night which will be staged at the Media.Link Com-munications main hall in Pietà on June 7.
Christian Micallef, one of the two producers of Net Replay, told a news conference that for this year’s 11th Gala Night, the production team had decided to include three new accolades – Best Referee, Best U-17 Player and the Premier XI.
“As in previous years, the 2011 Gala Night will serve as a fitting finale to a very positive year of football,” he said.
“These awards will give us the opportunity to honour those who excelled along the season.
“This year we are introducing three new awards which we believe will go down well with the public.”
George Micallef, the other mentor of the Sunday football show on Net TV, explained in detail the judging process that will be adopted this year.
“A panel of 12 football corres-pondents have just selected their top five players, in each position, coaches and referees,” he said.
“The votes accumulated by the top eight in each category will be carried forward to the final ad-judicating phase where another panel of eight football pundits will choose the winners.
“The Premier League Best XI will be chosen by the ten Premier League coaches. They have been asked to vote for the best player in each role. Votes for the U-17 player will be cast by coaches from the MFA Technical Centre, two jour-nalists and all U-17 coaches.”
It was also announced yesterday that the Replay Gala Night organisers will be awarding three Lifetime Achievement Awards to a former referee, an ex-player and a club administrator.
The Top Star and Young Star Player award will again feature in the awards. All players who featured in the Premier League this season will be asked to name their top five players to determine the winners.
Meanwhile, football fans will also be involved in the awards.
They are being asked to vote for their top Premier League player by sending a text message on 5061-7091 by June 7 at noon.
The awards
Best overall player, best local player, best foreigner, best coach, best goalkeeper, best defender, best midfielder, best forward, best referee, Premier XI, Top Star Player, Top Star Coach, best first division player, best female player, best U-17 player, best club website, lifetime achievement award and Viewers’ Choice Award – Player of the Year.