Valletta FC, Birkirkara FC and Gzira United wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Dr Robert Abela ahead of a meeting on Thursday between the Malta Football Association and health authorities. This meeting follows the presentation of a medical protocol to be followed for training and competitive matches should football receives the green light to resume.

In the letter, signed by vice-president Alexander Fenech for Valletta, vice-president Michael Valenzia for Birkirkara and president Sharlon Pace for Gzira, the three clubs said that the diligent way with which the government dealt with this pandemic, the situation in Malta is currently under control allowing for a number of restrictive measures to be lifted.

Valletta, Birkirkara and Gzira United said that they employ over hundred people and generate over a third of the total expenditure in the BOV Premier League and are therefore committed to bring the league campaign to an end so that the championship and participation in European competitions would be decided on sporting merit.

The three clubs added that the medical protocol prepared by the association should lead to the resumption of competitive football in a safe environment, adding that countries which had relatively good results in fighting the pandemic like Germany, others who faced a more difficult situation like Italy and England and others like Lithuania, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Bosnia Herzegovina and Estonia have all opted to resume their competitions.

Valletta, Birkirkara and Gzira said that in taking a decision, the repercussions of this same decision should be taken into consideration. The three clubs stressed that should the competition be terminated, one could not understand how football would return in three months’ time when there will be probably hardly any developments. In such case, the three clubs added that all sports activities should be suspended until when some sort of treatment for COVID-19 is found.

In their conclusion, the three clubs said that they understand that the Prime Minister and the government will act fairly and allow the BOV Premier League to resume so that everything would be decided on the field of play.

The meeting between the Malta Football Association and health authorities will be held ahead of a meeting of the MFA Executive Committee which would decide on Monday whether to resume the BOV Premier League or not.

Associations around Europe have until May 25 to inform UEFA about their decisions whether to resume competitions or not.