Former Valletta youth player first to be arraigned on U-21 match-fixing charges

The son of former Malta national squad midfielder and Mosta FC coach Ivan Zammit ‘is-Sei’, was denied bail after being arraigned in court today in relation to allegations that last week’s UEFA Championship U-21 qualifier between Malta and Montenegro may have been targeted for match-fixing purposes.

Seyble Zammit, 21, who played for Valletta FC's youth squad, was not a player in the Malta-Montenegro match, but was arraigned first before other footballers are arraigned.

Zammit was remanded in custody after being charged with having initiated a match-fixing offer and then proposed it to other footballers. The crime carries a possible two-year jail sentence.

Defence lawyer Mario Mifsud entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the accused.

Police inspector Sean Scicluna told the court that police had begun investigating after receiving information that the game against Montenegro and possibly that against the Czech Republic had been fixed.

Two arrests were made, of which one had been released without charge.

Flanked by his mother, Zammit was red-eyed as the charges were read out. Inspector Scicluna said the charges were serious, in spite of the footballer’s youth.

The prosecution, despite not bringing forward any evidence at this stage, objected to bail saying that Zammit was suspected of being part of an “organised set-up” and that could conceivably lead to him approaching witnesses.

Mario Mifsud argued that his client was “such small fish… he is practically caviar”, and that the majority of the charges were for attempted offences. He said the accused had already released a statement and that there was an element of fear.

Inspector Scicluna, insisted that the other persons under investigation were friends of the accused, and that investigations were ongoing and that he could not exclude other charges being laid later on. A number of U-21 players were summoned for questioning.

The Times of Malta said it had been probing the claims for a number of days but the Malta FA opted for prudence and refrained from commenting on the allegations. Bjorn Vassallo, the MFA general secretary, said the association was waiting for the report of SportsRadar to monitor the betting patterns related to the qualifier.

The Group One UEFA Championship qualifier was regarded as a high-risk match as far as betting is concerned because of Montenegrin interest in match-fixing.

The stain of corruption was visited upon the Zammit family when Ivan Zammit’s father Joseph pleaded guilty in a court of law of having handed over Lm5,000 each to former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo and former Judge Patrick Vella after they reduced the jail term of drug trafficker Mario Camilleri when they presided over his appeal in 2002. Zammit filed a guilty plea to complicity in the bribery of the two judges soon after testifying in the compilation of evidence against him.