MFA step up drive to boost grassroot levels

The Malta FA are stepping up their drive to boost the game at grassroot levels with an ambitious project, details of which were announced yesterday.

Bjorn Vassallo, the Malta Football Association CEO, told reporters the association will embark on a project aimed at introducing new reforms in coaching and administration.

“We feel that it’s time that we changed the way football is being run in Malta,” he said.

“For the past 10 years the MFA invested over 10 million euros in trying to develop the game at the senior level. Now we feel it’s time we take a completely different direction.

“In fact, we have already brought over Italian experts who will help us fulfil our ambition of strengthening the youth coaching sector.”

Salvatore Sullo, Alessandro Innocenti, Sergio Giordano, Elio Caravaglia and Raffaele Ametrano are currently in Malta and scheduled to introduce new strategies aimed at helping the development of young players.

Vassallo said that in the coming months other top-profile Italians will be brought over to conduct courses and train Maltese coaches in the fundamental basics of man-agement and physical preparation.

“Our goal is to take Maltese football forward and to achieve that we need to give our coaches more training experiences. They are the ones responsible for our future footballers so it’s essential that they have the necessary skills to maximise their potential,” Vassallo said.

He also said that the Malta FA is working hard to ensure that its technical centre at the Ta’ Qali complex will be run by the best coaches available.

“It’s not acceptable that we are criticised we don’t have the best coaches running our technical centre,” Vassallo said.

“We have to be the driving force behind the development of our game and to this aim we will be restructuring our set-up and make sure that the centre at Ta’ Qali is being run by coaches of a certain calibre.”

Robert Gatt, the technical director, said the Malta FA is determined to maintain constant contact with football nurseries across the islands.

“The coaching set-up is very important for us and in fact we are urging all those concerned to attend courses run by foreign coaches to improve management skills,” Gatt said.

“We are also stepping our drive towards promoting the game among schoolchildren. Our staff are visiting schools and make MFA services available to head-teachers to try and reach as many children as possible.”

Gatt said that on the occasion of the UEFA Grassroots Day, which is being celebrated today, over 400 children from various schools are expected to gather at the Ta’ Qali training grounds for fun games and other activities.

Sullo is a former Messina mid-fielder and last season was part of Bari’s youth coaching set-up.

He said there is a lot of en-thusiasm among the local admini-strators to take the game forward.

One has to be patient, however, as football development has to take its time, he warned.

“In the short period that I’ve been here I was impressed by the excellent facilities you have,” Sullo said.

“This project by the MFA is very ambitious but I believe that with the enthusiasm and commitment I have seen here it will be successful. I’m sure that people in Malta would love to see their national team playing on a par with other teams on the international scene.

“One needs plenty of time to reach certain levels. However, if we all stick together and adopt the same ideology I’m confident that Maltese football will make the progress it is craving for.”