The Malta FA has no intention of starting a conflict with the Malta Football Referees Association (MFRA) and will always pursue dialogue but the situation which emerged last weekend has compelled the local football body to review its relations with the MFRA, MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo said yesterday.

On Saturday, the MFRA announced that it had instructed its members not to officiate the fixture involving Mosta FC last weekend.

Their move was in protest at what the referees’ association claimed was failure on the part of the MFA and Mosta FC to publicly condemn the disparaging comments persons connected with the Premier League club made against referee Malcolm Spiteri in the aftermath of the FA Trophy game against Sliema Wanderers.

The MFRA directive led the MFA to postpone the game between Mosta and Birkirkara which has since been rescheduled for January 4.

Darmanin Demajo, who gave a blow-by-blow account of how the Malta FA got to know about the MFRA’s directive, expressed disappointment that theMFRA representative on the association’s Council was not present for yesterday’s meeting.

“I don’t like to discuss an issue when the representative of one of the concerned parties is not present,” Darmanin Demajo said.

Darmanin Demajo stressed that, as soon as he became aware of the distasteful Facebook comments about Spiteri, he advised Angelo Chetcuti, the MFA general secretary, to open disciplinary proceedings .

“Everyone condemns these kind of comments,” Darmanin Demajo said.

“The disciplinary process takes some time as we have to ascertain what was said, who made them and if these persons fall under the MFA’s jurisdiction.”

Critical remarks

Darmanin Demajo said he found it hard to comprehend the MFRA criticism as he himself regularly receives critical remarks from people over the performances of match officials.

“Of all the comments I receive on social media, 95 per cent are related to refereeing decisions,” Darmanin Demajo said.

“We have our disciplinary process and it must be respected.

“If there is a person who has always defended the referees, that person is me.

“This is not the way we want to act with the MFRA – we have given them representation on the Council so that, whenever there is a problem, we can discuss it.”

Darmanin Demajo insisted that the Malta FA has an obligation to protect the game.

“The MFA’s decisions will not be influenced by social media, certainly not under my leadership,” Darmanin Demajo stressed.

“We will be looking at our position to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

“This is not a case of us against them.

“Unfortunately, we are creating a conflict between the MFA and MFRA but this should not be the case.

“We will be looking at the relationship we have with the MFRA in its totality.”

Meanwhile, Dr Chetcuti, the MFA general secretary, said the documentation of the judicial process related to the police probe into match-fixing allegations surrounding the Malta U-21 team’s qualifier against Montenegro last March has been handed over to UEFA after being translated to English.

Cedric Baldacchino, who represents Marsaxlokk, will take the seat vacated by Dr Chetcuti on the MFA Executive Committee.

Baldacchino’s nomination was approved during yesterday’s Council meeting.

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