News • 3 August 2003

Catania councillors suggest football team applies to play in Maltese league

Kurt Sansone
Maltese football is not a phenomenon that makes headlines abroad but a row that has been raging between the Italian football federation and the Sicilian football club, Catania, has seen Malta’s name cropping up in the unlikeliest of scenarios.
On 19 June, two councillors on Catania’s city council, including the deputy mayor Giuseppe Arena called on the locality’s football team president to resist demotion to the inferior serie C1 division of the Italian league.
The two councillors were the first to sign a petition asking for the resignation of the Italian football league president Franco Carraro after a protracted war of words and interminable litigation, between Catania and the federation.
Catania was demoted to serie C1 at the end of last season after finishing in the relegation zone. But Catania claimed that in the match against eventual serie B champions Siena, which ended 1-1, the champions fielded an ineligible player and thus the result should be overturned. Taking their case to court, Catania got what they asked for, a reversal of the result and a 2-0 victory. This meant that Catania moved out of the relegation zone ahead of Napoli and Venezia.
The controversy now has boiled over and all demoted teams are contesting their relegation.
The issue has mobilised Catania’s city council and talking to Sicilian newspaper La Sicilia vice mayor Arena and councillor Pietro Ivan Marvignia floated the possibility of Catania applying to play in the Maltese football league rather than accepting demotion.
Arena and Marvignia told the newspaper: "We invite President Gaucci not to register Catania for the serie C1 league because the serie B belongs to us and, if that option is skipped we might perhaps also ask to participate in the Maltese league."
Tongue in cheek, the two politicians also remarked that Catania might even have a better chance of playing in Europe after two years.
kurt@maltamag.com