The Annual General Meeting of the Malta Football Association for the Year 2021 was held on Wednesday at the Dolmen Hotel, Qawra.
As usual, items on the agenda include the approval of the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting held on the 29th July 2020; the Approval of the Report of Activities of the Association for the year 2020/21; the approval of the Audited Accounts and Balance Sheet of the Association (Financial Report) for the year 2020/21; the election of the Ordinary Members of the Executive Committee of the Association for the year 2021/22 and motions.
In presenting the Report of Activities of the Association, General Secretary Dr Angelo Chetcuti spoke of the several challenges faced by the association over the past year.
However, there was a lot of positive as well, in particular the launch of the MFA strategy. He said this brought some soul searching within those involved in the association and said this will make the association even more dynamic, socially responsible and trustworthy.
The Inhobb il-Futbol Foundation is focussing on increase in participation, especially at grassroots level. The association reached an agreement with the Education Division thanks to which football sessions will be starting in Primary Schools. This could have started last year, had not there been the COVID-19 restrictions. Football hubs are also a key part of this foundation with staff already recruited who will be working on a curriculum prepared by the MFA Technical Centre.
The results and performances of the women’s national team in the UEFA Women’s EURO and the men’s team in the UEFA Nations League were another positive aspect. He said that to continue to improve the level of the game, with regards to coach education, qualification criteria for coaches working in the different categories of Maltese football have been raised. Thanks to the elite youths project, promising talent is being monitored on an individual basis. A memorandum of understanding was signed with Premier League and Challenge League clubs.
With regards to the commercial aspect, Dr Chetcuti said that the association had to take difficult decisions such as halting the operations of the MFA Swimming Pool. On the other hand, despite this challenging year, the association managed to attract new sponsors while MFA Sports Plus still managed to organise two important events.
The MFA General Secretary revealed that thanks to UEFA, the association is considering the rebranding of the association to reflect its values.
Meanwhile no elections for the Ordinary Members of the Executive Committee are necessary as the number of candidates was equal to the number of vacancies.
The ordinary members of the Executive Committee will be therefore:
Premier Division: Jesmond Abela and Victor Cassar
Challenge League: Joseph Sammut and Stefan Vella
National Amateur League: Robert Camilleri, Patrick Cutajar, Chris Grech and Cory Greenland
Youth FA: Stephanie Rocco
Gozo FA Samuel Azzopardi
Other Member Associations: David Abdilla and Francis Muscat
These will be serving for a period of two years.
Meanwhile an Extraordinary General Meeting will be held on Monday during which a number of amendments to the statute will be discussed.