Aspects regarding the future regulation of Maltese football

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to look at various aspects and realities of the game of football in Malta. The Maltese nation throughout the years has been evolving and continuously changing. I truly believe that football is a living thing, and therefore in order for football to keep evolving and flourishing in our island it is important that there must be continuous changes and adaptations in an ever changing world. It would not be an understatement to say that currently we live in a global village. With the ever increasing influence of the media around the globe, football has been transformed into an industry around which huge sums of money do rotate annually. Football games and tournaments are aired around the world with enormous amounts of supporters vying to watch this beautiful game, a game which catches the imagination of the young and adults alike. I'm sure that in our early years, most of us dreamed or at least wished to be a good football player, possibly making it at the highest levels of the games. This is what makes football so special. It unites different peoples, from different backgrounds. It has a special flair which makes millions of supporters so passionate about it. Since I was a child I have been following football both at a local and also at an international level. Since my teenage years I have been involved in the local game. In fact being an avid Msida St Joseph supporter it was only a matter of time before my love for the game and for my club led me into occupying various administrative positions with the club hailing from Msida. Positions which varied from being a committee member, to that of occupying the presidential post at the football nursery. These years of involvement in the local football have through the years led me to encounter scenarios through which I learnt that actually the players playing and performing on the field of play is just the tip of the iceberg if compared to all the administrative work that is done both by the Malta Football Association and also by the respective club committees. I have experienced and lived football seasons in practically all the playing divisions of the various MFA leagues, starting from the third division to the heights of the Premier league. I must truly state that 9 apart from the beautiful tactics on the field of play, there is also a beautiful, amid challenging, reality from the administrator's point of view. With the Maltese society living in a new European dimension, I believe that the Maltese administrator has to be wise, an aspect which throughout the years was mirrored in various administrators of immense caliber, in shaping and regulating the rules regulating the local game. These rules must be shaped in such a way that they reflect the new realities, both legal and also social, that we are facing as a nation. All this led me to write this thesis, a thesis which I am writing during an important anniversary for our association. In fact during this season the MFA is celebrating the first hundred years of Maltese football leagues. This is undoubtedly an important milestone for our association, an association which despite our size and various limitations, is surely respected worldwide, as the recent visit of UEFA President Michael Platini can testify. This thesis's main aim is to look at how the rules and codes of the MFA can be adapted in such a way that they reflect and mirror the relative European reality and legislation. Another aim of this thesis will be that to identify areas where the laws of Malta can be used as a tool which help and abide the already existing internal regulations of the MFA in areas such as bribery, a terrible aspect of human nature which has immense negative aspects and impacts. All this has been done keeping in mind the Maltese reality, which like every other thing in life has both positive and also negative aspects. As a nation we must be proud that despite our size we have such an organized national association, but in order to continue in the right track we have to recognize aspects were there may be need for change.