The Malta FA yesterday provided some encouraging news on local referees after announcing that Clayton Pisani has been promoted to UEFA’s first-class category while Alan Mario Sant has moved up to second class.
From the start of 2015, Malta will again have four referees and eight assistant referees on the FIFA panel with referee Adrian Azzopardi joining Pisani, Sant and Marco Borg while Jurgen Spiteri, Duncan Sultana and Roberto Vella have been added to the FIFA assistant referees’ list alongside Alan Camilleri, William Debattista, Mitchell Scerri, Edward Spiteri and Ingmar Spiteri.
Franco Cachia (futsal), Stefan Pace (beach soccer), Jude Utulu (beach soccer) and Esther Farrugia have retained their FIFA badges.
Pisani’s promotion is an achievement for local football as the 36-year-old becomes the first Maltese referee in 20 years to be ranked as UEFA first class, meaning that he can now be considered to officiate matches in the Europa League group stages and the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
Charles Agius was the last Maltese referee to have a UEFA first class status.
A visibly delighted Adrian Casha, the director of refereeing at the Malta FA, described these positive developments as testament to the abilities and professionalism of Maltese referees and the excellent work being carried out by the referees department.
“Clayton Pisani’s promotion is a huge boost for Maltese football,” Casha said.
“He certainly deserves credit for this as Clayton has worked hard to reach this goal over the past 12 months.
“Last year, we set ourselves the target of having one UEFA first class referee within the next five years but we managed to reach this objective three years in advance.
“This rewards the hard work put in by the MFA referees department.”
On FIFA’s decision to restore three Maltese officials, one referee and two assistant referees, to its list, only a year after reducing Malta’s quota, Casha said this mirrors the MFA’s resolve to prove that our officials deserve to earn such a prestigious status.
“When, last year, we lost three officials from the FIFA panel, we rolled up our sleeves and worked hard to improve the level of our officials to try and regain those places,” Casha said.
Excellent ratings
“Our referees have given the right response on the field of play as they achieved excellent ratings in international matches.
“This was in evidence in the second qualifying round matches of the Champions League where Maltese officials obtained the highest marks compared to their European counterparts.
“We are delighted that the reform we implemented three years ago has put us on the right path to achieve more positive results.”
On his part, Bjorn Vassallo, the Malta FA general secretary, only had words of praise for the referees’ department
“The refs’ department deserves all the plaudits for these results as it has worked really well during the past months,” Vassallo said.
“The Malta FA has invested heavily to make sure that our referees are given the right preparation. We never expected such results so soon but these show that our efforts are bearing fruit.
“In the last two years, the number of Maltese referees has gone up from 90 to 130 and this has been achieved thanks to the efforts of our referee academy, led by Alex Arena.”
Alex Manfrè, chairman of the Malta FA referees board, said they will not be resting on their laurels and will continue working hard to help local referees make further inroads in the international arena.
“I have only been at the helm of the referees board for six months but I have been impressed by the dedication of my colleagues,” Manfrè said.
“This is a very demanding sector but it’s a challenge that I accepted with both hands and I’m committed to keep working hard over the coming months so that more local referees continue to advance as that would further help the development of the game in Malta.”