MFA Awards to be presented next Friday

mfa-awards-launch-2014The Malta Football Association will be presenting its awards in its annual awards ceremony – the MFA Awards 2014 on Friday 27th June at the National Stadium, Ta’ Qali.

During the launch of the event, MFA Chief Executive Officer Bjorn Vassallo said that the MFA Awards 2014 bring to an end a season full of emotions, controversies and drama – a year full of all the ingredients necessary to make the season an exciting one. He said that since the season was played over nine months rather than the usual ten due to the UEFA Under-17 Championship which was held in Malta, this time, players had a longer break before resuming preparation ahead of the UEFA competitions – the draws for which will be held on Monday 23 and which will be played in July.

Photo: Copyright © Joe Borg

Vassallo said that the BOV Premier League proved to be an exciting one – both at the top and in the lower part of the table with the final league matches determining the championship and one of the teams to be relegated to Division 1. The other leagues also proved to be exciting with clubs in the BOV Third Division League not registering a loss while the BOV First Division and the BOV Second Division providing wide opportunities for youths to play.

Despite a wrong impression that attendances were on the decline, there was an overall increase of 10% in attendances with attendances for BOV Premier League matches increasing by 9%.

Bjorn Vassallo revealed that the draws for the BOV Premier League will once again be held during the MFA Awards ceremony with the draws for the other divisions being held on July 5th. As from next season, the BOV Premier League will be played on a three-round basis with a play-off between the team placing tenth in the BOV Premier League and the team placing third in the BOV First Division.

The chairman of the MFA Awards organising committee, MFA vice-president Dr Chris Bonnett said that for the second consecutive year, the awards ceremony is being organised on a larger scale than it used to be before. While the venue for last year’s ceremony was the MFCC, this time, it will be held at an open-air venue – the area in front of the South Stand at the National Stadium.

Dr Bonnett thanked Alan Cutajar and Christian Micallef who used to organise the Malta Football Awards and the Replay Gala Night respectively who are now members of the organising committee of the MFA Awards.

He went on to say that there will be two particular themes during the event – Brazil due to the World Cup and the Grassroots’ concept. Players from the Malta Under-17 side will be presenting the various awards which will include:

Footballer of the Year Award
Young Player of the Year Award
Best Foreign Player Award
Coach of the Year Award
BOV First Division Best Player Award
BOV Second Division Best Player Award
BOV Third Division Best Player Award
BOV Women’s League Best Player Award
Youth League Best Player Award
Top Scorers of the BOV Leagues
Goal of the Year Award
Referees Awards
President’s Award
Fair Play Awards
Gozo Player of the Year

In most categories, club captains coaches and journalists were invited to vote. Nominees for the various categories, apart from the Goal of the Year Award, will be announced on Monday.

The Gozo Player of the Year Award will be presented for the first time during the MFA Awards following an invitation by MFA President Norman Darmanin Demajo to Gozo FA President Alvin Grech. The award is open to all players in the Gozitan First Division.

The event will be presented by Rodney Vassallo, Pamela Schembri and Christian Micallef and will be screened live on TVM 2.

Dr Chris Bonnett thanked main sponsors Bank of Valletta, Catermax and Public Broadcasting Services for their support.

Public Broadcasting Services Manager Sports Peter Cossai said this event was part of the constant collaboration between TVM2 and the Malta Football Association. In fact, PBS has been screening local matches on a weekly basis for the past two years apart from national team World Cup and EURO qualifiers.

The artistic director for the MFA Awards 2014 is Peter Busuttil.

Nominees for Goal of the Year Award

Hamza Barry (Birkirkara) vs Valletta;
Haruna Shola Shodiya (Birkirkara) vs Balzan;
Ryan Micallef (Rabat Ajax) vs Tarxien;
Edward Herrera (Birkirkara) vs Hibernians;
Daniel Bogdanovic (Floriana) vs Rabat;
Carlo Mamo (Tarxien Rainbows) vs Balzan

Vote by sending an email to sports@pbs.com.mt. SMS voting will be opened on Monday.