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Former judge Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici delivers his verdict on the “unimpressive” World Cup he has witnessed so far. He’s hoping Brazil makes it to the final… again
Dire times for the world of football. Italy is immersed in a bribery and betting scandal which has its number one choice goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon right in the heart of investigations. And a World Cup that so far, has failed to impress even Chief justice emeritus Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, who at 75 is an old hand not just at the gavel but also at the game of football, having been at the helm of the Malta Football Association for 14 years and a member of various UEFA boards right up until 1984.
 “I’m really disappointed, first of all with Brazil,” Mifsud Bonnici says, surprised at the lacklustre performance of the selecao which has featured a rather out-of-shape Ronaldo. The 2002 World Cup’s leading scorer’s weight has been a concern even for the high world of Brazilian politics, after Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva apologised to the striker for asking whether the player was fat during a video-conference with the national team on Thursday.
“Brazil has such a great line-up of players, but to see them play the way they have and having to watch Ronaldo not even moving, right there in the middle of the field, like some sort of Buddha,” (note to the politically correct: relax everyone, it’s funny) “…Ok, so he has had many injuries, but,” Mifsud Bonnici cackles, “having this player doing nothing, standing about like some sort of Buddha, I mean it was really disappointing. “Adriano, who plays for Inter, is no longer last year’s Adriano. He has just changed. He’s not the goal scorer we have grown accustomed to. I’m curious to see when he’ll be emerging from this dark phase of his. Of course there was clear effort. Take Cafu: this guy is 36, you know? Roberto Carlos is no spring chicken either. There’s Kaka of course, who scored. As I read the newspapers on the morning of the Brazil match against Croatia, I saw that the coach said Brazil had just deployed 60 per cent of its potential… so it’s wait and see.”
Mifsud Bonnici changes subject to England, who crowned their second victory with two last-minute goals against a tenacious Trinidad and Tobago. “Their first match was really wearying, and that really described their performance. But even though everyone expects them to perform better, England are no sensation. The same goes for the Germans. Poland really put up a strong performance. France too, big disappointment.”
So has there been anything redeeming from the first round of matches, I ask? “Well, the Czechs were good,” Mifsud Bonnici, an Arsenal supporter, says. Good thing Wenger has snapped up 25-year-old midfielder Tomas Rosicky, the author of two goals in the Czech’s reassuring 3-0 win over the USA, baseballing outcasts enjoying a plucky rise to the status of World Cup performers.
“And there’s Spain, who contrary to their tradition of never putting up a show at the World Cup, this time proved history wrong with their 4-0 win,” he says about their dazzling debut match against Ukraine. “I want to see whether they can keep up this pace, that would be interesting to watch.”
The rest, he says, is normal World Cup fare, save for the unexpected collapse of Ukraine to the Spaniards.
But Mifsud Bonnici is still hoping to see Brazil in the final. But as for their rivals, the retired judge’s shortlist is still lengthy. “There’s Germany as the home team. You cannot ignore England because they have a strong spirit. France, if they recover from their lull. Italy, of course. And maybe Spain.”
By the time Mifsud Bonnici had stepped down from president at the MFA, Malta had not yet played Spain in their memorable 12-1 loss at Seville. The memories of national humiliation were rekindled recently in an Amstel beer advert featuring former keeper John Bonello, lampooning the gargantuan defeat by appearing as a returning hero to Spain, this time lauded as the Spaniards’ ‘amigo perfecto’ – perfect friend. His foray into the world of acting hasn’t impressed those who remember the match. Mifsud Bonnici on the other hand, has not seen the advert yet.
“The Spain game happened after I had left. Yes I heard of the article, but I did not read it since I was abroad. Well, the 12-1 loss was truly an exception. Rumours were rife. I just cannot think that there was any case of match-fixing to the extent that Spain was guaranteed 11 goals, but it was suspicious just the same.”
“But you cannot be ironic about that loss. No, not at all. A 12-1 loss is nothing to be ironic about.”
Mifsud Bonnici steers away from controversy. He chooses not to pass judgement on the way current MFA president Joe Mifsud handled the criticism of the national social welfare agency Appogg who called for Mifsud to terminate the employment of a groundsman who was a convicted paedophile. “Well Joe Mifsud spent a lot of time with me at the MFA and I wouldn’t feel comfortable commenting about a successor. Dr Mifsud has the great merit of being totally dedicated to the game, something which I could have never done, surely. He certainly isn’t diplomatic,” he laughs, raising up his hands in his trademark gesticulation.
We turn back to the performance of the national Maltese team. “Of course we are limited in the talent we can produce for a population of 400,000. What irritates me is when we perform badly against countries which are roughly our size. Take Cyprus, or Luxembourg. If we perform badly against national teams such as the Faroe Islands, that really bothers me. I remember we had beaten Iceland in Sicily, and that was a satisfactory performance. Then again I am not of the opinion that Malta should just take part in competitions where smaller teams are playing. The Maltese public is passionate about the sport, and wants to see the national team play against the bigger teams. Every time we play the big teams, we have excellent attendances by the public.”
Such as the 1971 1-0 loss to England, Mifsud Bonnici reminisces. “The excitement during that game was amazing. There were 36,000 people at the old stadium in Gzira. There were so many spectators that we couldn’t even move out from the VIP box to salute the players at the start of the game. We spent five minutes having to wait until the police could open up a passage for us among the spectators, so that we could greet the players.
“I still remember the anxiety I had, fearing the worst because we had exceeded the maximum capacity at the stadium. The insurance cover taken out by the MFA did not cover all those people, and I knew that if a tragedy occurred we would not be covered by our insurance. Had Joe Cini scored that goal when in those last five minutes his shot just brushed the goalpost, and equalised against the English… well, I can just imagine the rapture that would have followed. The British press had been rather churlish. They said England was going to play against a bunch of waiters.
“When I had signed the contract for the land at Ta’ Qali Stadium, I never really hung around to see how the game would develop, because I was accustomed to seeing our players training on the hard ground at the Gzira Stadium. I’d say it was an advantage in certain respects for the Maltese,” Mifsud Bonnici muses. “You’d have to see the faces of the opposing teams from abroad the minute they step on the turf-less, dusty, hard ground at Gzira,” he laughs. “We were quite used to it!”
What surely hasn’t been missing from this edition’s World Cup is the religious enthusiasm by Maltese supporters of the great teams. The England-Italy feud is alive and kicking, and today the Maltese support features assorted fans of Brazil and Germany. Opposition leader Alfred Sant hasn’t failed to impress with his confessed support for the minnows in the world competition. For this edition he has taken up the Costa Rican flag.
“The Maltese just love football, and they feel they want to identify with some team, either England or Italy. Of course, they do support Malta. When we played England, everyone was supporting Malta. We’re not that stupid. But when Malta doesn’t figure in the game, we go for the bigger teams. Look, just outside my street there’s a shop actually called ‘Klinsmann’,” he says about the tiny store whose shop sign carries the former German international star’s last name painted in sprawling white paint. Chances are that it’s the owner’s name. “It was a riot the night the Germans finally managed to sweat out a solitary goal against Poland,” Mifsud Bonnici sounds out the cacophony that ensued. “It’s just a natural thing for the Maltese.”
And doesn’t he think it’s anachronistic to take up the national flags of a foreign team? Mifsud Bonnici laughs. “Really, it’s just an expression of sportive sentiment. It only gets ugly when it degenerates, when people start fighting. As long as everyone is enjoying it, with some teasing here and there, the occasional lemon to mock the losing team, I think it’s ok.”
Mifsud Bonnici’s own preference for the foreign teams tends to be quite selective, amusingly confusing, choosing not to be tied down by allegiance. “It depends on who is playing,” Mifsud Bonnici laughs. “If it’s Germany playing England, I’ll support England. No doubt at all. If it’s Italy playing Germany, I’ll support Italy,” he says, pretty much indicating that there’s no love lost with the German side. “But if Italy play England, I’ll side with Italy.
“The beautiful thing about football is that you can never predict the outcome of a match. You go there and watch a game with an open mind, and you just watch the game unfold and judge what you see,” he says with expected wisdom from a former member of the judiciary. “If Italy is performing badly, I’m not going to get excited about the whole affair.”
Despite his former ties with the Maltese footballing scene, Mifsud Bonnici admits being absent from the domestic league. Cospicua-born, he says he was pleased that St George’s had once again managed to win promotion to the premier league. “It’s my team. The Maltese pioneers of the game. Maybe I should start going to watch them again. I haven’t watched a game for some time now. I am usually invited to watch certain matches by the MFA. But that’s about it.”
Contrary to what many people say, Mifsud Bonnici believes the quality of Maltese football has actually advanced, but still, the spark in those players who graced the dusty and rock hard ground at the Stadium in Gzira, is no longer there. And the names he picks out from the hall of fame are predictable, such was the awe they generated every time the ball was at their feet.
“They were real players, who had less sophisticated training and preparation, and less opportunities. People like Louis Arpa, Willy Vassallo, Joe Cini, Tony Nicholl, Salvinu Schembri, Benny Camilleri, the way Wenzu Gabaretta saved penalties, well that was special! The years of the Floriana Ajax were incredible. Maybe we have overestimated these players? I don’t know. But the quality of those players was truly exceptional. Today we have made great advances in our play, and we have registered progress. I mean, God forbid that we could never improve. At least there’s a lot of cash in the coffers at the MFA. In my time, we were bankrupt! Our gate money was shared with the owners of the land, the barony of Testaferrata, and that would leave us with mere spare change. The attendances today have diminished, which means clubs still don’t get much money. Thanks to UEFA, the cash is rolling in continuously.
“However, I still cannot understand how the Maltese clubs are paying those high salaries for their players. There must be some really generous people who contribute some really serious money for certain players, especially the foreign players. And you have to consider their enormous debts.”
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