Five players have been shortlisted for the MFA Player of the Year Award following a preliminary voting which was held on Friday at the MFA Headquarters.

The five players are Gilbert Agius (Valletta), Shaun Bajada (Birkirkara), Trevor Cilia (Birkirkara), Denni Rocha Dos Santos (Tarxien Rainbows) and Kevin Sammut (Valletta).

Since regulations governing this award were changed last year, the total amount of votes obtained is not published and the winner will be known during the MFA Awards Ceremony which will be held on July 16.

In all, nine nominations were submitted. These included another two Premier League players – Marcelo Pereira (Hamrun Spartans) and Terence Scerri (Valletta) and two players from lower divisions – Miguel Montfort of Pietà Hotspurs and Kristian Galea of Sirens.

In a first vote, five players had to be short-listed and Agius, Bajada, Cilia, Denni and Sammut obtained the highest number of votes. In the second vote, the members of the committee voted for these five players, awarding them with 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 votes according to their preferences.

Eligible to vote were ten Council Members representing the Clubs in the Premier Division, ten other Members of the Council and ten journalists.

Besides the votes obtained in this preliminary vote, players shall now be awarded points for appearances and penalised with points for misconduct. Points for appearances shall be awarded in connection with matches in the BOV Premier League, the U*BET FA Trophy and appearances with the national team.

Players shall be awarded three points for having taken part in a league or trophy match even if the player is substituted and two points for having taken part in a match as a substitute while they be penalised with one point for each yellow card and four points for each red card. Another point is deducted if the player was found guilty of misconduct before or after a match. Five points are awarded for having played a national team match or three if included as a substitute.

The total number of votes obtained by each of the five finalists from the Committee and the points awarded for appearances after demerit points are deducted for misconduct are then converted into a percentage of the total number of votes obtained by all the five players.

The new total would also include an extra point for each player for every time he won the Footballer of the Month Award.