Four players, Gaetan Spiteri, Julian Briffa, Jermain Brincat and Chris Brincat, have been banned for life from football after being found guilty of match-fixing.
The hefty sanctions, announced by MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo yesterday, were handed down by the Malta FA board to adjudicate charges related to bribery and illegal betting in football following the conclusion of two separate inquests into allegations of match-fixing attempts.
Spiteri, Briffa and the Brincat brothers had been provisionally suspended by the MFA Executive Committee in October after being investigated by the MFA Integrity Office.
Spiteri, who has spent most of his senior career with Ħamrun Spartans before joining Qormi on a season-long loan last summer, has been sanctioned after being found guilty of colluding with Briffa to offer a bribe to Steve Bezzina, then a Sliema Wanderers player, before the latter team’s 2011/12 Premier League second-round match against Ħamrun Spartans. The game, played in February last year, ended 1-1.
Bezzina, now on the books of Mosta, was not subjected to disciplinary action as it emerged that he rejected the bribe.
Briffa was also found guilty over his involvement in the Sliema-Ħamrun case but MFA prosecuting officer Adrian Camilleri recommended an amnesty for the former Mqabba player on the grounds that he co-operated fully with the investigators and provided information that enabled the MFA to take disciplinary action against other persons under the association’s jurisdiction.
The board imposed a life ban on Briffa in accordance with the MFA rules but, after taking into consideration Dr Camilleri’s plea, also recommended a partial amnesty for Briffa, who is currently serving a doping ban.
Under MFA rules, only the association’s annual general meeting has the power to grant amnesties.
Jermain Brincat, who started this season with Floriana, and his brother Chris, a Floriana futsal player who was also a member of the national squad, were slapped with a life ban after both were found guilty of trying to bribe Naxxar Lions defender Sunday Eboh before the Division One first-round match against Gżira United.
This case came to light a few days before the match, which ended 2-2, was played on September 28, 2012.
The players can appeal against their bans.
Domestic games
At yesterday’s council meeting, Darmanin Demajo reported that the MFA Integrity Office had probed allegations and comments about match-fixing in relation to a number of domestic games but these have been archived due to insufficient evidence.
The investigated matches were Balzan-Mosta and Mosta-Birkir-kara, from the Premier League, and Mqabba-Lija and Mqabba-Gżira, from Division One.
In the Mqabba-Lija case, the unfounded allegations centred around the performance of the referee who awarded what were then described as two dubious penalty in the closing stages of the game.
As far as the Birkirkara-Mosta game is concerned, Adrian Delia, Birkirkara’s council member, pointed out that it was he who had flagged up the allegations made by Mosta president George Galea after one of the Premier League matches played between the two teams.
Dr Delia, a lawyer by profession, said he had passed on the names of the persons who had been mentioned by Galea, including that of a Birkirkara committee member, to the MFA and the police but, when summoned for questioning by the association’s Integrity Office, the Mosta president allegedly retracted his allegations.
Dr Delia proposed that persons who make certain defamatory comments without backing them with evidence should be liable to disciplinary action by the MFA.
Meanwhile, the board of internal auditors ruled that MFA vice-president Ludovigo Micallef and secretary Joe Gauci were unaware of the irregularities in the distribution of UEFA solidarity payments to clubs between 2002-03 and 2006-07.
In a separate inquiry, the board had found that the MFA, then under the helm of former president Joe Mifsud, withheld around €68,000 from money derived from the UEFA solidarity payments which ought to have been distributed in full among the clubs.
According to the board, Dr Mifsud admitted that the MFA used to retain a portion of the funds which were subsequently invested in the association’s youth sector.
The MFA council requested the board to investigate whether there was any degree of deceit or complicity by the other top officials in this misappropriation of funds.
After interviewing Micallef and Gauci, the board concluded that “no intentional malpractice could be ascertained” with respect to MFA officials who are still serving in the association’s administration.
Darmanin Demajo said the UEFA solidarity payments case will be referred to the association’s board of control and discipline which is expected to file charges of improper conduct against Dr Mifsud, who was named honorary president of the MFA after his defeat in the presidential election in 2010.
“It’s not our intention to blow this case out of proportion but the process must take its course,” Darmanin Demajo said.