Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545896
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19JULY 2026 OPINION Saviour Balzan Founder and co-owner of Media Today, publisher of MaltaToday, he is a TV host and pollster Bending over to Sharlon I guess padel is the ultimate sport for middle-aged men. It is a low-impact sport and offers a highly social doubles format in a smaller court size. So, the news of so many padel courts in Ma- noel Island was good news for the sporty guys. This of course meant that at dinner parties everyone sort of shifted the con- versation whenever the illegality of the padel courts was brought up. I, of course, am in no position to play padel. Apart from the fact that I have never been the sporty type, I am not at all competitive. But even so, the real story about the padel saga in Manoel Island is about bad government policy, the different yardstick for big guys and small guys, and the principle of good governance in our sports clubs. Let us start from the last point. Good governance Gzira United have long had a title to land at Manoel Island granted to them by the Lands Authority. When you are given a concession by any government entity you are obliged to respect the conditions of the concession. It is abundant- ly clear that when Gżira were given the land at Manoel Island, the main reason was for the club to have a football pitch, where it could train. Padel was definitely not on the agenda. But what has happened is that this land has now been convert- ed to padel courts run by Sharlon Pace. At the same time Pace is the president of Gzira United Football Club. Somehow, the club has al- lowed Pace to make money from these padel courts and somehow get compensated. How this arrangement operates is unclear and whether it amounts to good governance or not for a football club I do not really know. What I do know, however, is that somewhere along the line, both the club and Sharlon Pace ignored the fact that they needed a plan- ning permit to build the padel courts. Big guy versus small guy When the development was first flagged, the decision was to im- pose a miserly €900 fine for the illegal construction of the courts. As expected, public outcry was loud and clear. The fine was a sick joke. One must know that decisions like this are usually influenced from the powers that be. The il- legal courts were regularised last week and in addition to the fine, the PA imposed a €25,000 plan- ning gain—let's just call it a 'fee' for regularising a serious illegality that will render significantly more than that. Bad government policy Months ago, the government led by Prime Minister Robert Abela decided to take a bold decision and rescind the Manoel Island concession that had been grant- ed to MIDI through a negotiated procedure. Manoel Island had been passed on to a group of busi- nessmen by a Nationalist adminis- tration some 26 years ago but with the Labour Party in Opposition nodding its head in approval. The highly publicised decision to annul the contract and take back Manoel Island served as a back- drop to Robert Abela's willingness to do the right thing in the face of mounting public pressure. Ma- noel Island was given back to the people and the owners and share- holders were paid back millions of taxpayers' money. Manoel Island was an unexpect- ed achievement that raised the profile of the Labour administra- tion. It was an intense proud mo- ment; so proud that the Labour Party even made it a point to use Manoel Island and Fort Tigen (al- so taken back) as the backdrop for the election campaign launch. Rightly so, Prime Minister Rob- ert Abela declared that he had managed to achieve something special for the Maltese and given back a valuable historical island to the public. Manoel Island would be converted into a national park for the benefit of all Maltese not a selected few. As all this was happening, Shar- lon Pace was constructing illegal padel courts as if there was no to- morrow. Not making sense Now, let us stop for a minute. I cannot see that a national project of this magnitude will not and should not include sporting fa- cilities. It should and God forbid if anyone argues that the whole project should be simply an un- maintained and unattended open space. Sports facilities are essen- tial, more so when we know that Manoel Island is bang in the mid- dle of a heavily-congested conur- bation. But these facilities have to be consonant with the plan for the area. We ended up with no holistic plan but with padel courts already taking up space. There is no doubt that the gov- ernment led by Robert Abela emerged from its election victory, feeling self-confident. It believes people will remain silent if the Manoel Island plans turn out to be a mockery. Bending over to Sharlon also de- values the achievement at Manoel Island and risks turning Robert Abela's magic moment into noth- ingness. Taking things for granted is wrong and will only piss off peo- ple. So much so, that come 24 July, Moviment Graffitti is organising another protest about Manoel Is- land—the first national protest since the election. Bending over to Sharlon Pace (left) also devalues the achievement at Manoel Island and risks turning Robert Abela's magic moment into nothingness We ended up with no holistic plan but with padel courts already taking up space