David Carabott has been granted permission by the Malta FA to sue third division club Marsaxlokk for breach of contract.
The Carabott-Marsaxlokk FC row sparked a lengthy debate during yesterday’s MFA Council as the association took steps to tackle the anomaly associated with this case.
In a nutshell, Carabott’s contract to coach Marsaxlokk, his home club, has been rejected by the club’s new hierarcy after the previous committee was dissolved a few months ago, prompting the MFA to take over the running of the club until a solution was found.
Carabott lodged a complaint with the MFA but the deal was deemed null by both the Complaints Board and Appeals Board as the committee’s resolution, as stipulated by MFA regulations, was not attached to the contract deposited at the MFA.
Faced with this ruling, Carabott, Malta’s most capped player with 122 appearances, wrote to the MFA Council requesting permission to take Marsaxlokk to court as the association’s regulations preclude its members from taking legal action on football-related matters without its consent.
The Council voted in favour of Carabott’s request, a decision that was welcomed by MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo who said the onus was now on the Council to heal what he described as a self-inflicted wound after George Mallia, another former Malta player, had been suspended for suing Qormi over unpaid wages.
New contracts
In a bid to prevent a repeat of the Carabott scenario, the MFA approved an amendment whereby new contracts with coaches and technical staff that are not accompanied by a resolution will be considered valid after seven days from when that agreement is filed.
All existing contracts with coaches and technical staff that are missing a resolution copy will also be deemed valid if no objection is raised within seven days from yesterday.
Darmanin Demajo yesterday touched on the national coach’s issue as Pietro Ghedin’s contract is due to run out in December.
Darmanin Demajo said the general feeling among the members of the Executive Committee was that the national team has cut a good figure under Ghedin and the MFA should therefore consider the possibility of extending the Italian coach’s contract, as reported by Times of Malta last Friday.
However, Darmanin Demajo was keen to stress that this doesn’t necessarily mean that Ghedin will surely be offered a new deal as he wanted to discuss the matter with Robert Gatt, the MFA technical director.
Meanwhile, Adrian Delia, the president of Birkirkara FC, called on the MFA admini-stration to explain the guidelines on match officials appointments for domestic games.
Dr Delia insisted that this should be done to ensure greater transparency.
Although the Birkirkara president refrained from voicing his grievances about the refereeing decisions that irked the Stripes in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Hibs, Darmanin Demajo said he had no doubt that Dr Delia’s stance was motivated by those incidents.
Darmanin Demajo said he had no problem inviting Adrian D. Casha, the MFA director of refereeing, to explain the criteria for referees’ appointments at the next Council meeting but reiterated his faith in the integrity of the people who are running the refereeing department as well as the match officials.
Bjorn Vassallo, the MFA general secretary, said that referees Fyodor Zammit and Trustin Farrugia Cann have been nominated to rep-lace Marco Borg on the FIFA panel.
Luke Portelli’s name has been put forward by the MFA to take the place of Ingmar Spiteri on the FIFA assistant referees’ list after the latter resigned at the end of last season.
• The MFA have nominated the late Joe Cassar Naudi, a former referee who made a sterling contribution to Maltese football, for induction into the MOC Hall of Fame.
• The Malta U-21 team, who have gained five points from their opening five UEFA U-21 qualifiers, have been named as candidates for the team accolade at the L-Għażliet Sportivi Nazzjonali SportMalta awards.
• The MFA are striving to arrange a series of friendly matches for the national team in the run-up to the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. So far, the only confirmed friendly is against Austria next summer.