Norman Darmanin Demajo is pleased with the progress achieved inthe last three years but he’s determined to keep the momentum going as he seeks a second term at the helm of the Malta FA.

“Clubs, clubs, clubs” was Norman Darmanin Demajo’s maxim prior to his election as Malta FA president three years ago.

His overwhelming victory over his nemesis Joe Mifsud, who had been at the helm of the association for 18 years, was inevitably greeted with euphoria by his backers and the officials of the clubs who aligned themselves with the man promising change.

A former MFA treasurer, Darmanin Demajo had a lot to live up to, not only because of his winning pledge to address the clubs’ long-standing concerns but also because of his own reputation as a respected MFA official before a power struggle with Dr Mifsud forced him out of the association in 2000.

Three years on, Darmanin Demajo and Bjorn Vassallo, his trusted ally who took over as MFA CEO after the election, have effectively ticked most of the boxes on their electoral to-do manifesto as the association invested millions of euros towards embellishing the clubs’ facilities besides other initiatives to boost their income.

As with every large organisation like the MFA, there is always work to do and new targets to aim for. And Darmanin Demajo is adamant that he will not rest on his laurels.

I think the time has come to change the format of the Premier League

He has set himself a new objective which centres around ‘growth and sustainability’ as he seeks another three-year term at the helm of the MFA at the July 20 annual general meeting.

So far, no candidate has publicly declared his intention to challenge Darmanin Demajo but rumours are rife that Peter Fenech, the former MFA vice-president, is mulling his options.

Darmanin Demajo’s second visit to Armenia last week, 19 years after accompanying the Malta squad for a ‘test’ match against the former Soviet republic who had just applied to become members of UEFA, provided Darmanin Demajo with an odd reminder of the initial challenges he faced on becoming MFA president.

“When I visited Armenia for the first time, I was kind of taken aback by the state of the country,” Darmanin Demajo told The Sunday Times of Malta.

“The Armenian people had just been handed the keys to govern their country after the collapse of the communist regime but they did not know what to do with them!

“But, what is the connection with football?

“Three years ago, when I was elected president of the MFA, the situation was, to some extent, similar in that the clubs has reached a status quo. Since the absolute majority of the clubs didn’t have adequate facilities... honouring fixtures was basically the be-all end-all for club administrators.

“My first priority was to convince them to change mentality.

“The biggest challenge was to first assist every club in securing an adequate ‘grass’ training facility which would serve as a base, a platform, on which the clubs could then plan a grassroots programme for their locality, followed by new marketing opportunities.

“So, we helped them financially as much as we could, but our resources are not unlimited – we are short but have assurances from government regarding assistance. We need a final injection of about €3 million to bring this programme to a close.

“Investment at grassroots level is crucial.

“The legacy of a club administration should not be measured by the amount of trophies won but by its ability to organise and manage its club properly. And the only way forward was for clubs to have better facilities.”

Raising standards

While the MFA deserve credit for making good on their promise to upgrade the clubs’ facilities, they have not managed to make a quantum leap in so far as raising the overall level and profile of the domestic game is concerned.

Critics have suggested that Malta has too many clubs for its size and that quantity is hampering quality.

Darmanin Demajo believes the problem lies not in the amount of clubs but in their approach.

“It is often said that in Malta we have too many clubs but what can I do about it?” he remarked.

“Should I approach certain clubs and tell them to close because we have too many?

“Every village in Malta has a church and a football club, it’s embedded in our culture.

“Our problem is that we have 53 clubs that classify themselves as ‘professional’ when in reality, they are not.

“In my opinion, as things stand today, we only have a dozen clubs who can aspire to reach a semi-professional status, and these are mainly those that compete regularly in the Premier League.

“Given the budget of some of our Premier clubs, I think they are capable of operating on a semi-pro basis – this basically translates into having their training sessions in the morning or early afternoon – the wages they are paying their players justifies this, especially considering that the squad now includes a number of foreign ‘professionals’.

“What is the best model for our football? I think the Premier League can sustain a semi-professional system with the first division serving as a feeding league to the Premier.

“In my opinion, the second and third division should be defined as amateur leagues, and in saying, amateurs, I don’t mean to downgrade them, just redefine their legal status at statutory level.

“Clubs in the lower divisions should not recruit foreigners but rely mainly on home-grown players. Eventually the best talent in these leagues should find their way to the top ‘professional’ leagues – that is the rule of football.

“It works both for the club and for the players themselves – the best players will always want to play in the highest league.

“I used to play for Qrendi, and had a great time doing so, but when the opportunity came and Valletta FC showed interest, I jumped at the chance and signed up in five minutes.

“Regarding the Member Associations and their teams I believe that these should be genuinely made up of amateur players. I’m even prepared to propose a pre-preliminary round in the FA Trophy for these amateur teams.”

The drawn-out format of the Premier League has also been blamed for the dwindling interest, especially in the early stages of the season.

This has prompted calls for the MFA and clubs to ditch the current format whereby the 12 teams are split into two groups and the points halved after the first two rounds.

Darmanin Demajo has always spoken in favour of finding a more attractive model for the country’s flagship competition.

“I think the time has come to change the format of the Premier League,” the MFA president said.

“I’ve been looking at a few lea-gues and I think the Dutch cham-pionship is quite interesting. The team that finishes top is declared champion but the championship culminates in a series of play-offs involving the remaining sides.

“For example, teams finishing second to fifth go into the Europa League play-offs and further down, there are the relegation play-offs.

“This format guarantees a high level of interest until the end of the season.

“Our model needs to be changed but we have to discuss it at all levels and keep an open mind. We need to listen to everyone involved.”

The MFA president believes that Maltese football can only reach the next level if the clubs become more sustainable, adding that the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, which were approved by the Council last month, are intended to achieve that aim.

“Our challenge and priority for the next three years is sustainability,” Darmanin Demajo said.

“The future of our football cannot be fuelled by debt... we have some clubs who are riddled with debts.

“We have to stimulate them to step up their efforts towards achieving sustainability.

“The Financial Fair Play regulations are very simple... don’t spend more than you earn, and I am pleased to note that the majority of clubs in our first, second and third division leagues are already applying this principle.

“As far as the big clubs are concerned, they must move away from the prevailing win-at-all-costs mentality and learn to balance their books.

“In the past three years, our main focus was on infrastructure, thus our pre-election motto... ‘clubs, clubs, clubs’.

“We have fulfilled our promise, albeit at an incredible cost.

“The next important step is for the clubs and the MFA to become fully sustainable.

“The clubs have to trust us that what we’re doing is in their best interest... we have their ultimate good at heart. We also need the government’s backing to fulfil our aims.

“When, back in 1998, the clubs were awarded a legal title on their grounds and premises, the long-term plan was somewhat flimsy.

“For those clubs that wanted to become public limited companies, there are many restrictions.

“I believe we can attract football investment but to do so our clubs need to change their status to PLC – I think that this would increase transparency, accountability and continuity. As things stand, committees are elected for one year, with minimum commitment to anything.

“We need to have a permanent structure that benefits our clubs, especially the big ones.

“There are people who are prepared to invest in our football but this is not feasible under the existing framework.

“With the introduction of the FFP, the club’s finances will be more transparent. The government will also benefit from this and if things are done right, it could justify our request for the introduction of a special income tax rate for athletes involved in sports activities, including football.

“Football generates a lot of economic activity, but to maximise the benefits we need to tweak the regulations. We are looking for a win-win situation with all parties concerned.

“We also need to look internally at our regulations especially those that I feel are undermining the progress of clubs.”

Match-fixing

For all the efforts to boost the image of Maltese football, a series of match-fixing scandals, especially that surrounding Malta’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Norway which led UEFA to ban midfielder Kevin Sammut for life, have only added to the cynicism about our game.

The setting up of the Integrity Office was aimed at reinforcing the MFA’s fight against corruption but the on-line betting on Maltese games has only exacerbated the problem.

There have been suggestions that the MFA is not doing enough to fight match-fixing.

“I think the Whistleblower Act, which has already been approved, is the best weapon against match-fixing,” Darmanin Demajo said.

“I’m all-out against match-fixing. I’m aware of the reality that this could be happening in our game.

“To really strengthen the fight against bribery, we need stronger legislation and this is what everyone is pushing for in other countries.

“We need to give the police more tools and incentives to hunt down the perpetrators. It has to be a concerted drive involving the associations, their integrity officers, police and Interpol.”

In his first three years as president, Darmanin Demajo has also revitalised the technical centre.

The appointment of Robert Gatt as Technical Director signalled the start of an important project aimed at transforming the technical centre into a vibrant hub for coaches and administrators.

“Before deciding to stand for election as MFA president three years ago, I tried to look at the big picture. I asked myself... how can I contribute to raise the level of our football?” Darmanin Demajo said.

“The clubs’ infrastructure was the most glaring priority, but infrastructure alone is not enough.

“Infrastructure is the hardware but to elevate the level of our game, we need the ‘software’ – software in this case is good coaches, and good coaches need the best available education.

“We could only do this by re-organising our technical centre which had almost ground to a halt.

“We were in a situation where the existing national team coach’s (John Buttigieg) contract at the time included a clause that prohibited the employment of a Technical Director at our technical centre.

“In the last three years, thanks to the efforts of Robert Gatt, we have overhauled the technical centre which has now become an open house for coaching education.

“Our intention is to further strengthen the technical centre’s work and make it easier for coaches to enhance their knowledge and expertise. We still lack a number of qualified coaches.

“We have embarked on a project, which I call the Soldano project, for promising players born in 1997 and 1998.

“I believe that to seriously raise the standard of our game at national team level, we need to have between 15 and 20 players who are on contract and playing with professional clubs overseas – not necessarily with Europe’s top leagues but in leagues where they train and live a pro life.

“If clubs can’t provide our best players with a sustainable full-time professional set-up in Malta, then we need to ‘piggy-back’ other professional set-ups in some other foreign European league.

“I am confident that if this happens, we will take our national team to unprecedented levels.

“We have incredibly talented players up to the ages of 12 and 13, but beyond that the players are channeled through our ‘existing systems’ and the talent dilutes and the players fade away into ‘normal’.

“Two years ago we undertook a project to address this problem but the results will only be assessable in four to five years’ time – probably way beyond my term of office.

“Nevertheless I am confident that this pilot project will be a big success from which we can also learn as we go along.

“In the present squad of boys born in 1997 and 1998, there are already six to seven who have reached a level which has attracted interest from international scouts and foreign teams.

“This is very encouraging and probably the most exciting thing happening in Maltese football at the moment.

“A lot has happened in the past three years, and there is still so much to do, but the greatest motivator has been the overwhelming support that I have received and continue to receive from the club administrators and committee members.

“These are the people who have a genuine passion and love for the game and without whose sacrifice and financial contributions, football would not have survived and reached the levels we have today.

“They are my heroes – the wind beneath my wings. I take this opportunity to thank them all.”

Darmanin Demajo’s views on...

Number of clubs
• “Our problem is that we have 53 clubs that classify themselves as ‘professional’ when in reality, they are not.”

Sustainability
• “The future of our football cannot be fuelled by debt – we have some clubs who are riddled with debts. We have to stimulate them to step up their efforts towards achieving sustainability.”

Match-fixing
• “To really strengthen the fight against bribery, we need stronger legislation and this is what everyone is pushing for in other countries.”

Financial fair play
• “The Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations are very simple... don’t spend more than you earn, and I am pleased to note that the majority of clubs in our first, second and third division leagues are already applying this principle.”