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The Malta Football Association president, Dr Joe Mifsud, who happens to be as well the Chairman of the Referees Board, decided to hang on to his lucrative posts (lately it was stated in the local media that Dr Mifsud earned an estimated EUR140,000 yearly). I always believed in his administrative capabilities but the case in question, that of allowing a convicted paedophile to work as a groundsman at the Pace Grasso football ground thus very close to young children, leaves much to be desired. To add insult to injury, the only action that came from the Maltese FA was to ban the pupils of Guzè D’Amato Boys Govt School from their right to use the ground. Therefore, more hardship to the children and an incentive to the paedophile to strike again. If this is not insensitivity I don’t know what is!
We cannot overlook the fact that this same person sits on one of the highest echelons of world football as a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, the governing body of European football. This fact on its own makes this case all the more important and to a certain extent international in nature. I wonder whether his European colleagues are aware and what are they thinking right now but surely it must be on their minds. This would be too great a scandal to just leave it die a natural death.
I am not implying that Dr Mifsud should be forced to leave, not at all, but had this happened in another European country such as the UK or Italy, surely things would have taken a different turn. Still, there is an honourable way out – RESIGNATION! But in Malta, resignation seems to be a dirty word.
Roberto J Buontempo
Councillor, Birkirkara
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