The Malta FA Council, at its meeting of May 10, unanimously approved the introduction of the new local licensing and financial fair play regulations.

Now, after adhering to the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations in 2010, which apply only for clubs participating in the Champions League and Europa League, all football clubs in the Premier League and First Division have to abide by certain financial criteria.

The new rules will ensure that all clubs participating in these two divisions compete on a level playing field, not just on the football pitch, but also in their respective boardrooms and banks.

The regulations stipulate that in two separate monitoring periods, one for the first five months of the year and the other for the remaining seven months, clubs do not have overdues in wages, other clubs in transfer activities and the Inland Revenue Department.

Clubs not abiding by these regulations will be sanctioned by the MFA’s Licensing Board, with disciplinary measures varying from reprimands to fines, deduction of points and relegation to a lower division up till the refusal of the licence.

That would imply that a club would lose its status as member of the MFA and thus not participate in any MFA championship or the FA Trophy.

These new regulations will come into force on June 9, 2014, just in time for the opening of the new football season. This means that clubs will have more than a year to adapt to the new system and get in line with back payments which are overdue.

These regulations, although strong in substance, cover just 25 per cent of the reform that the MFA has embarked on to modernise Maltese football.

Work has already started on the re-writing of regulations against corruption and match-fixing, rules on the status of players, and the commercialisation of Maltese football clubs.

All these reforms are expected to be implemented within a year.

This reform is of utmost importance for the future of the Maltese public’s favourite game. It is being done hand in hand with the modernisation of all the infrastructural facilities of all football clubs with the ultimate aim to make Maltese football become a proper industry, where it is now estimated that hundreds of persons are making a living out of the game.

The MFA strongly believes that it is only through this way that a professional Premier League can be achieved.

It is time to bring our house in order, and thanks to this process, we can ensure that through the upgrading of clubs’ facilities and the creation of new revenue streams, which until now have been unheard of in Malta, our clubs will be able to attract new investment in the game, even foreign, which would ultimately guarantee a sound future for Maltese football.

Note: Dr Chris Bonett is Head of the MFA Legal Department.