MFA launches new schemes: Guaranteed gate money; compensation for clubs who use Under-21 players

MFA President Norman Darmanin Demajo announced the association would be launching new schemes this coming season thanks to which clubs will benefit while addressing Council members and delegates in his closing address at the MFA Annual General Meeting.

Darmanin Demajo said that as a president one of biggest challenges was that of always looking at the bigger picture.

He said that a challenge and a priority for association  was to ensure  success not only for the association but also for clubs.

He said that unfortunately at club level, there was still lack of stability.

The MFA President said “The absolute majority of Second and Third Division clubs are working break even or even making profit. But on the other hand, Premier League clubs are either running at a loss or are depending on president or sponsors.”

Darmanin Demajo stressed that the association should continue working on strengthening the stability of clubs and in fact, 30% of its expenses were going towards competitions and investment in facilities.

“We are not here to make business and for the coming year, we will be launching new schemes. Apart from the Facilities Funding grant, we will add the Club Administrator Scheme thanks to which the MFA will finance clubs who employ an administrator. This scheme is worth €350,000.

“Another scheme is the Guaranteed Gate Income Scheme which means more gate money for clubs. We “bought” gate money for the Premier League in return for a fixed amount for each club.”

Darmanin Demajo said that discussions with First Division clubs with regards to this scheme are still underway. With regards to the Second and Third Division, he said gate money is negligible and revealed that the association is considering free entrance for these leagues in the coming years.

This scheme is worth €175,000 and although the MFA could lose money, he stressed this would help stability in clubs.

Another scheme which will be introduced will compensate all teams from all divisions who introduce players under the age of 21, who are eligible to play for the national team, if they play at least thirty minutes in a particular match.

Darmanin Demajo said that:

  • Premier League clubs would receive €125 per player per match up to a maximum of €6500 per team per season;
  • First Division clubs would receive €70 per player per match up to a maximum of €3600 per team per season;
  • Second Division clubs would receive €60 per player per match up to a maximum of €3000 per team per season;
  • Third Division clubs would receive €50 per player per match up to a maximum of €2500 per team per season

Clubs would benefit of a maximum of €210,000 from this scheme.

The MFA President said that thanks to these three schemes, clubs would benefit a total of €760,000 for next season.

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