The feeling of corruption in sports is a common sensation worldwide. Football and Maltese football are not in isolation and the feeling among football enthusiasts that our football is corrupt is not a recent phenomenon.
Way back in the early 1990s, during the sports discussion programme L-Argument on ONE TV, former Birkirkara president Victor Zammit had highlighted a survey in which it was stated that one of the main reasons that our stadiums suffer from poor attendances is the feeling that games are fixed and results are known. Recent cases of corruption in our football scene, including the national team players’ involvement, the present Birkirkara president’s outburst, among other unpleasant situations, left a dark cloud on top of all our stadiums.
The online betting on all local football games, including the lower divisions has opened a Pandora’s box of possibility for this problem to grow. An incredible amount of €70 million were played on the local Premier and First Division leagues way back in 2013, and I assume that this figure kept increasing over the years.
Comments by MFA integrity officer Franz Tabone in sports-related TV programmes and most explicitly in an article on Times of Malta way back in February 2015 confirmed that corruption in local football is not a perception but a reality. He stated that “Maltese football is infested by people that are bringing the game’s sporting level at the lowest grade”.
But it is useless crying over spilt milk and now that all the stakeholders from government to the Opposition, from SportMalta to the football association and from police to clubs realised that the problem is big and that something needs aggressively to be done so that the plague that is throwing a bad light on our local scene is tackled and the damages limited.
An anti-corruption task force, initiated by the Malta Football Association,that brought together around the table the local authorities, is definitely a good way forward. This task force is focusing mainly on the education aspect and on the legal perspective. It has the intention to develop an education campaign to fight this plague in a positive way and at the same time it is working to strengthen the legal framework and the resources within the police force so that culprits are made aware that for every action, there is a severe consequence.
But outside this task force there are a number of stakeholders who can play a better role. Undoubtedly, the media has a wide reac and even social media can act as a catalyst to educate for this feeling to be diluted. Sports journalists need to forget exclusivities and sensationalism when spreading their stories, and have to understand that most of the time they are a make or break to the game.
They need to speak on facts not on perceptions and they need to report cases and not hide faces in interviews. Parents, local nurseries, physical education teachers and PSD teachers should also reinforce the values of good sportsmanship to their classes. The common vocabulary used by our kids, such as mixtri (bribed) and ħalliel (thief) when they play during break should not be taken lightly but discussed and consequences of this behavior highlighted.
Throwing in the towel is definitely not the solution. Let us all together do our bit so that this big obstacle is challenged and if we do not defeat it we must at least begin to dilute it. The hope is that in the years to come our local stars will have inculcated the values of governance and passion for this beautiful game.
Mark Cutajar, CEO SportMalta
Ask someone – anyone – whether they believe Maltese football is clean and their answer will be an emphatic no. Maltese football is rife with corruption, we’re told, and nothing is being done to address this.
That nothing is being done by the powers that be is certainly untrue. What is undeniably true, however, is that the introduction of online betting has catalysed an exponential increase in match-fixing and corruption in football.
The statistics themselves are astounding. Two years ago on my weekly sports programme Replay on NET television, the former general secretary of the Malta Football Association (MFA), Bjorn Vassallo, stated that an average €70 million are placed on legal bets per season in Malta – €50 million on Premier League games and €20 million on the First Division.
More incredible still is that an ever larger amount is spent on illegal betting, particularly through the Asian market, which holds the world’s most notorious match-fixing organisations that influence football the world over.
The reality is that organised crime in football is on the increase and will only continue to grow. Earlier this week, Magistrate Joe Mifsud rightly referred to match-fixing as a “cancer at the heart of football”. Organised crime is putting the game’s reputation at stake, and drastic measures must be taken to make the rules targeting match-fixing and corruption in sports tighter and stricter.
Considering all this, it is unfortunate that match-fixing and corruption in Maltese football do not yet appear to be a top priority for the Malta Police Force. Doubtlessly, the events of recent years indicate that the force is besieged by corruption and crime at all levels. There can be no excuse, however, for failing to develop robust measures and resource allocations for a sport that is generating such a high degree of legal (and illegal) betting.
In January 2015, the MFA’s integrity officer Franz Tabone argued that Maltese football was “infested by people who grade the game’s sporting spirit at the lowest grade, if any”. He further claimed that some club officials were absolutely blinded by the promise of money and would dive into any abyss to chase a fast buck.
Many who hold Maltese football close to heart welcomed Tabone’s comments with open arms. Though some attempted to persuade Tabone to use more diplomatic language in a bid to protect the game’s reputation, the general consensus was that too much is at stake for us to continue treating this scourge with kids’ gloves.
Tabone’s comments heralded the creation of a new anti-corruption task force by the MFA. One of the main functions of the new task force was the formulation and proposal of new legislation to strengthen the severity of penalties against persons found guilty of sport corruption. Once approved, persons found guilty of corruption will face up to five years’ imprisonment and a general interdiction from sporting events. This is definitely a step in the right direction, though much more needs to be done to address the challenges brought to the fore by online betting.
One of the areas that are of most concern, for instance, is borne from the decision to increase the number of teams competing in the Premier League, from 12 to 14 teams. This will only stretch and dilute the strength of teams competing at top level, but it will also make it easier for criminal organisations to get a foot into and manipulate our top-tier league. Whoever recommended this new format failed to see the bigger picture and has made the Premier League even more vulnerable than it ever was.
We should all stand behind calls to introduce and enforce stricter rules that serve as a true deterrent against football corruption. Match-fixing and corruption are ruining our game and are an essential cause behind the diminishing attendance levels in our stadiums. Supporters are simply walking away from the game.
If we truly care for our game’s reputation, let us not shy away from speaking about the ongoing threat of match-fixing and unite in our fight against corruption in football.
Christian Micallef, TV sports presenter of Replay