Marsaxlokk were given permission to start from Division Three in season 2013-14.

Marsaxlokk will compete in Division Three this season after their request to forfeit their Division One status and start afresh from the lowest echelon of Maltese football was upheld by the Malta FA during an Extraordinary General Meeting yesterday.

After a successful spell in the top flight culminated in their winning their first and only Premier League title in 2007, Marsaxlokk were unable to hold on to their best players in the following seasons amid the club’s increasing financial woes.

Last month, Marsaxlokk, who claimed a mid-table position in the Division One league last season, were handed an eight-point deduction by the MFA Licensing Board over outstanding payments to ex-players and clubs.

The club’s dramatic decline was confirmed last week when Marsaxlokk officially submitted a request to the Malta FA to be granted permission to drop down to Division Three this season, citing difficulties to assemble a competitive squad for Division One.

After receiving the backing of the MFA Executive Committee, Marsaxlokk’s request got the seal of approval during yesterday’s EGM.

The decision means that the 2013/14 Division Three championship will be composed of 14 teams with Marsaxlokk taking up the ‘bye’ slot in the fixtures schedule.

On the other hand, the Division One league will now be contested by 13 clubs instead of 14. Consequently, the fixture scheduled for Friday evening has now been scrapped.

At the end of the season, two teams will be relegated from Division One while the top three teams in Division Two will gain promotion. Three teams will be relegated from Division Two while four will go up from Division Three.

The assembly at yesterday’s EGM was told that the association’s rules stipulate that, in the event that a club is demoted for disciplinary reasons, their place would be taken by the second relegated club which, in this case, would have been Dingli Swallows who finished second from bottom in the BOV Division One championship last season.

However, the rules appear to make no provisions for the scenario created by Marsa-xlokk’s own request to drop down to Division Three. Furthermore, the Malta FA felt that it would have been unfair to ask Dingli Swallows to replace Marsaxlokk in Division One only a few days before the start of the championship.

The Malta FA EGM also agreed to tweak the format of this season’s BOV Women’s League following the withdrawal of Mosta. This season’s championship will be contested by seven teams over three rounds. Only one team will be relegated with two being promoted .

Also yesterday, the EGM approved a motion on the partial amnesty granted to defender Julian Briffa at the last Malta FA Annual General Meeting.

In July, the MFA Council had endorsed the Prosecuting Officer’s recommendation to cut Briffa’s life ban to one year on the grounds that the former Floriana and Sliema defender had fully co-operated with the investigators during the probe into allegations of match-fixing in the game between Ħamrun Spartans and Sliema Wanderers, played in season 2011/12.

The one-year ban was supposed to start on July 31, 2012, the date of Briffa’s provisional suspension, but according to the motion approved during the MFA’s AGM, his reduced ban was effective from March 26, 2013, the date when the anti-bribery board initially handed a life ban to the player.

The mistake was rectified yesterday when the EGM approved a motion to change the starting date of Briffa’s one-year ban to July 31, 2012, effectively clearing the way for the veteran defender to resume his playing career with immediate effect.

At yesterday’s Council meeting, held prior to the EGM, it was decided that the report on the disciplinary proceedings against former Spartans officials Elton Borg and Julian Friggieri, who were charged with fixing seven Premier League matches last season, is to be sent back to the board to adjudicate charges related to illegal betting and bribery in football.

The decision comes in the light of the board’s decision not to hand down a formal punishment to Borg and Friggieri who, at their disciplinary hearing last month, decided to voluntarily resign from any football activity indefinitely and irrevocably.

Subsequently, the board declared that it no longer held jurisdiction over Borg and Friggieri but the Malta FA are now requesting a definitive ruling on the case.

The same board imposed a seven-point penalty on Ħamrun Spartans for match-fixing as, under MFA rules, a club is liable for the behaviour of its committee members.