7th March 2015 will be remembered as one of the important dates in Women’s football as the MFA held its first ever workshop which included all stakeholders comprising women’s football in Malta.
Several interesting subjects were discussed during the workshop since women’s football in our country is still in the process of building an important reputation.
The MFA wanted to bring all stakeholders, especially the players themselves, together to look into all issues regarding what has been done so far and what more can be done. The main topic was next year’s leagues and festivals’ set-up.
All participants shared their ideas and the possible options which the MFA and the Women’s Standing Committee collected. It will now be up to the association to take into consideration and decide the best format according to logistics in order to continue to improve the technical level of our girls. This is also meant to lead to wider interest within media relations.
Three different groups were formed in order to have a large spread of ideas, with three different moderators assisting in all respective groups. The groups were divided in this order:
Players; Captains of senior teams & U16 teams & national team players
Coaches; Coaches of senior teams & U16 teams
Administrators; Administrators and delegates of the women’s sectors
The workshop proceeded in a very professional manner. It was divided in four parts which highlighted various points within women’s football.
It commenced with an introduction to all stakeholders, who were given an overview of the MFA’s vision, mission and objectives to increase the importance of this sector. The participants were then split into their respective groups and they were extremely active as all groups had various tasks to carry out.
Among these, the MFA wanted the participants to discuss the problems that players, coaches and delegates encounter respectively. All the groups then had to complete a SWOT analysis which underlined the strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and threats within each club in women’s football in Malta.
Another exercise was a task to set up a club with all required necessities including a motto and in the meantime discuss the problems they might encounter during the formation of a new club. The groups also had the task to discuss the hot-topic of the league set-up for next season. All coaches, players and administrators present had a voice in this discussion. The ideas were not lacking, something which underlined that everyone had the best interest of the game at heart.
The workshop came to a conclusion with all these stakeholders in their respective groups sharing their ideas and suggestions in a way that every group could evaluate its initiatives so that the game can continue to expand and reach higher levels. MFA Senior vice-president Ludovico Micallef was present throughout all the groups’ presentations and then followed to close the workshop.
This activity was certainly a successful one as there was a lot of positive feedback from all participants. They all showed the will to take the right path for their girls and as a result the MFA is looking forward to holding other workshops as these are essential in the process of the developing further women’s football in Malta.