Bjorn Vassallo appointed MFA Chief Executive Officer

Bjorn Vassallo has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Malta Football Association. His appointment was approved by the Council of the Malta Football Association during a meeting which was held on Thursday.

MFA President Norman Darmanin Demajo said he believed that for the association to be run in a more efficient manner there had to be changes in the administrative structure of the organisation. Therefore in order to be in line with companies in business, the post of CEO has been created.

The president will therefore be assisted by the CEO and by the general secretary.

Bjorn Vassallo, who represented San Gwann in the Council and was MFA Executive Committee Member, will be taking this role. He will therefore has to step down from both the San Gwann committee and from the Executive Committee. For the past few years, Vassallo was Norman Darmanin Demajo’s right-hand man.

As part of the new organisational structure, the three vice-presidents, the general secretary and the treasurer will respond to the CEO rather than the president.

Carmelo Bartolo, who was re-appointed senior vice-president during the same Council meeting, will have under his responsibility the legal, licensing and regulations department, refereeing, health and safety and security departments.

Ludovico Micallef will be responsible for projects, national teams, grassroots, youth development and the Technical Centre.

Falling under the responsibility of Alex Manfre are the International and Events department, Public Relations and media.

Treasurer Antoine Portelli will have the responsibility over banking, finance and marketing.

The Competitions department will fall under the responsibility of general secretary Joe Gauci.

There will be four deputy general secretaries namely Louis Micallef – Administration, Rodney Pisani – Competitions, Joe Cassar – International & Events and Maria Tanti – Grassroots, Youth Development and Education. Ivan Mizzi is Deputy Treasurer (Banking and Finance).

The heads of department are Rodney Pisani – Head Competitions Department, Patrick Fenech – Head Refereeing Department, Norman Saliba – Head Marketing Department, Pio Pisani – Head health and Safety and Security Department, Victor Mifsud – Head Stadium Management and Vic Hermans – Head Technical Centre. The heads of the Legal, Licensing and Regulations Department and the PR and Media Department were not announced yet.

During Thursday’s meeting, former MFA Presidents Dr Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici and Dr Joe Mifsud were both approved as Honorary Presidents.