MFA Executive Committee discusses proposal to make referee appointments public

The Malta Football Association has moved a step closer to making referee appointments for domestic matches public after this proposal received the backing of the members of the Association’s Executive Committee.

A recent internal exercise among match officials showed that over 75 per cent of them are in favour of making refereeing appointments public.

The proposal to announce refereee appointments in advance will be discussed further at the next meeting of the Malta FA Council.

At the last Executive Committee meeting, held earlier this week, Dr Angelo Chetcuti, the Malta FA General Secretary, presented the preliminary findings of the BOV Premier League study which is being carried out by the UEFA Intelligence Centre.

The objective of this study, which is now at a very advanced stage, is to provide a snapshot of our top-flight championship and its impact on the national teams, benchmarking this information with other peer group countries like Estonia, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Northern Ireland.

As part of the information-gathering process, last week two members of the UEFA Intelligence Centre held a number of discussions with different stakeholder groups at the Malta FA offices.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The Malta FA has just launched the second EU-funded project on refugee inclusion, named ‘All In – All For Football’.

This social responsibility initiative is a continuation of the ‘Include Me and I Will Understand’ project, held last year, which saw the participation of over 500 persons, mostly refugees and vulnerable people, 10 clubs and a number of NGOs, agencies and associations.

UEFA CERTIFICATE IN FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT

The Malta FA will be hosting an edition of the UEFA Certificate in Football Management (CFM) after its application was accepted by UEFA.

It is envisaged that the Maltese edition of the UEFA CFM, which is organised as a collaboration between UEFA and the hosting associations, will commence in the first cycle of 2020.

The certificate is issued through the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne and is worth 10 ECTS Credits acknowledged by all European universities.

Each nine-month course comprises several modules covering important aspects of the management of a football association, including the organisation of world football, strategic and performance management, operational management, football marketing and sponsorship, communications, the media and public relations and event and volunteer management.