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7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 JULY 2021 NEWS Award of Honours and Decorations Malta pays public tribute to Maltese citizens who have distinguished themselves in different walks of life and whose contribution and achievement enrich the general well-being of their fellow countrymen. Any Maltese citizen, a group of persons or a voluntary organisation which is duly enrolled with the Commissioner in terms of the Voluntary Organisation Act may be nominated for the award of an honour on Republic Day. Nominations for 2021 will be received by the Nominations Committee on the prescribed Nomination Form, addressed to the Chairperson, Nominations Committee, Office of the Prime Minister, Auberge de Castille, Valletta VLT 1061, by not later than Wednesday, 4 th August 2021. Nomination forms may be collected from the Office of the Prime Minister, Auberge de Castille, Valletta or downloaded from the website of the Office of the Prime Minister www.opm.gov.mt. For further information, one may contact the Cabinet Office on 22001481. The persons nominated should neither be approached for details, nor informed about their nomination. KURT SANSONE A group of anonymous Maltese investors have helped shore up the Catania football club in neighbouring Sicily, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. Several reports in local news- papers have been documenting the interest of Maltese inves- tors in the football club since May, however no names have been mentioned so far. Talks for a complete takeo- ver of the club had been going on for weeks but failed after the Maltese investors initially sought an outright takeover but wanted the club's debt to be written off. However, early last week, as Catania faced the deadline to apply for readmission in Ita- ly's third-tier league – Serie C – the Maltese investors report- edly pledged €500,000 to help the club reach the financial target of around €2.1 million to be eligible for the competi- tion. The financial target was also met thanks to a crowdfund- ing initiative among Catania supporters that raised some €150,000. The rest of the mon- ey came from sponsors and the company that runs the football club, Sport Investment Group Italia (SIGI). None of the reports in Sicily have indicated who the Mal- tese investors are or what busi- nesses they may be involved in, or even their number. The investors appear to be known only to the owners of SIGI. Questions sent to Catania football club remained unan- swered by the time of going to print. Influential Italian sports newspaper, Il Gazzetta dello Sport said last Wednesday that the Maltese investors were dis- cussing taking up a sharehold- ing of between 20% and 30% in SIGI. The newspaper did not name the investors. Multiple sources in the Mal- tese football community were unaware of who these investors are and former prime minister Joseph Muscat quashed ru- mours that he was involved in any way. "I was never involved in any negotiations regarding Catania, neither as a facilitator nor as an investor. I also do not know who these investors may be," Muscat told MaltaToday. Muscat said last year that af- ter politics he will be dedicat- ing time to sport and football in particular, which is probably the reason why his name was floated about by our sources. SIGI is made up of 11 share- holders that include a mix of Italian individuals and compa- nies that have equal sharehold- ing. According to news reports from last year when SIGI took over at Catania, the compa- ny's share capital amounted to €55,000 with each of the 11 shareholders forking out €5,000. The Catania football clubs runs a 130,000sq.m sports vil- lage known as Torre del Grifo that includes training grounds, a hotel, swimming pools and commercial outlets. ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Mysterious Maltese investors seek shares in Catania football club COVID: seven new cases highest for a month SEVEN new cases of COVID-19 were registered yesterday over the past 24 hours, together with 3 recoveries, as the total number of active cases increased slightly to 56. The seven cases announced yesterday were the highest number of new cases registered in a single day in almost a month. No new deaths were reported, leaving the death toll stable at 420 as it has been for the past week. The Ministry for Health reports 2,841 tests in the past 24 hours and 4,524 vaccine doses administered in the same period. The number of fully vaccinated persons now stands at 332,650.