Nadur Youngsters have vowed to do everything in their capacity to investigate the allegations that emerged during the Malta FA disciplinary proceedings which led to the Gozo club being demoted to Division Two and fined €4,000 for match-fixing.
The Malta FA board to adjudicate charges relating to bribery and illegal betting in football imposed the hefty sanctions on Nadur after Anthony Sam Portelli, the club’s former secretary, admitted to trying to bribe Xewkija Tigers player Peter Buttigieg before a crunch league match between the two rivals last season.
Portelli, who was handed a suspended jail term along with George Joseph Sultana after both filed a guilty plea in Gozo’s Magistrates’ Court, has been given a life ban by the Malta FA.
Reacting to the decision of the anti-corruption board, Nadur said they want the whole truth about this case to come to light after noting that the same board effectively called on the Gozo FA or the Malta FA to look into the allegations made by witnesses during the MFA inquiry.
“In the same decision, the Board observed that, according to the testimony of the witnesses, it could have been the case where the particular club official implicated in this case of bribery may have been involved with the sole purpose that, as an official, the entire club would have to shoulder the responsibility for his actions,” Nadur Youngsters said in their statement, signed by president Eucharist Camilleri and secretary Joseph Camilleri.
“(The Board) effectively ordered the Gozo Football Association or the Malta Football Association to keep investigating these allegations which the same board referred to as “very serious”.
“Nadur Youngsters will continue to conduct the appropriate inquiries and declares that it will co-operate fully with the Gozo FA and the Malta FA so that finally the whole truth behind this case comes out.
“We also reserve the right to take all the steps deemed necessary and opportune against anyone who was involved, directly or indirectly, with the aim of tarnishing the name of the club in the event that there is concrete proof that the motif behind this case was principally to cause damage to Nadur Youngsters and no-one else.”
Nadur, who finished runners-up to champions Xewkija Tigers last season, also highlighted that the MFA board’s decision found that only one member of the club, Anthony Sam Portelli, was involved in this alleged case of corruption.
The club said that it acted immediately to suspend Portelli indefinitely and also issued a statement condemning unreservedly any act or attempt of corruption in football and sport in general while disassociating itself with the involvement of the then club official.