Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/750768
14 MALTESE football is going through some turbulence at the moment. Admittedly, in terms of national performance Malta never really had a Golden Age to look back on. Despite occasional 'positive displays' – which usually take the form of draws or narrow defeats – and much rarer victo- ries along the way, the traditional script always dictated heavy loss- es for the national team. The recent 5-1 defeat to Scot- land at Ta' Qali seemed on the surface to be a continuation of that tradition; even if staunch defenders of the national team will point towards questionable referee decisions that cost Malta two players. Elsewhere, statistics appear to confirm that Malta's overall performance in interna- tional competitions has never really shifted a gear from the me- diocre. This is particularly dispirit- ing for local supporters, as other comparable countries such as Iceland both qualify and impress in the European Cup: causing lo- cal fans to question what the Ice- landers have that we don't (apart from their Viking clapping chant, naturally). Meanwhile, the local sport has been rocked by recent match-fix- ing allegations. Last March, the police opened an investigation into suggestions that a UEFA Un- der-21 Championship qualifying game between Malta and Monte- negro was rigged. Montegro won the game 1-0. This is hardly the first time such suspicions were raised; but it does signal a new direction for sport-related corruption. Play- ers claimed that they didn't re- port the Asian syndicate which approached them because they feared for their life. In brief, it seems as though the level of cor- ruption associated with local football has risen far beyond the standards of the actual game it- self. It is against this backdrop that Angelo Chetcuti, sports lawyer and vice-president of Birzebbugia FC, was elected to replace Bjorn Vassallo as MFA secretary, after the latter resigned to take up the position of director of European member associations at FIFA. "In my case, and I'd like to stress this, it's about being loyal to the game," he begins when I ask him what prompted this career deci- sion precisely now. "I come from a small club myself – Birzebbu- gia – and that was what first gave me the opportunity to have an administrative role in the sport. At that level, I was representing a club: but I have always felt there should also be a level of responsi- bility to take care of the game as a whole. "It may sound 'holier than thou' to others, and I'll understand that reaction. But I still feel that responsibility. One of the valid criticisms we receive as football administrators is that we tend to focus so much on the stakehold- ers we represent – which is most often the club – that we don't see the bigger picture. There are a lot of basic questions that need to be asked. How many children are playing football? How many of them keep playing? What struc- tures exist to help them maximise their talents: first and foremost for their own personal develop- ment, but even so that we, as a football association, have the best possible players for the national team?" These are questions asked by other local football aficionados... especially when comparing to other small European countries. Iceland is the most immediate comparison: having a slightly smaller population that ours, yet somehow managing to compete more successfully at higher lev- els. How does Chetcuti himself account for the enormous differ- ence in standards, between two broadly similar countries? "It is true that Iceland has a comparable population, but there are many other differences. Ice- land has a much larger propor- tion of players in foreign leagues than Malta, for instance. These are aspects that are often over- looked when people assess the performance of players on the pitch. You need to have a sense of perspective when comparing: not in order to justify your own side's shortcomings, but to ensure that your assessment is based on real- ity..." The reality, he goes on, involves more than just purely national statistics. "The reasons for Mal- ta's failure to emulate the success of Iceland are broad and com- plex. There is more to it than just pointing fingers at the national team itself, or the coach... these are all links, but the whole chain starts much further back. Forget football for a moment: how many of our children do any physical activity at all? If we're going to make these comparisons, we have to bear in mind that in places like Iceland or Holland there is a cul- tural mindset that favours physi- cal activity. Certain basic motor skills and sporting disciplines are compulsory in their educa- tion systems; there is a struc- tural framework – for all sports, not just football – that is already there and very strong. "On top of that, there is a whole list of other things we have to look at; things we should be do- ing, or aiming towards. I would say the first thing we'd need to look at is our attitude: not to be defeatist. God forbid we stop be- lieving that we can improve our level. But there is a whole chain of other factors. Very often we con- centrate only on one or two areas. Even if we succeed in those areas, it would still be a hotchpotch ap- proach…" Could corruption itself be part of the reason? The Malta-Mac- edonia U21 game points in this direction... as does the even more infamous (though never techni- cally proven) case of Malta's 12- 1 defeat against Spain in a 1982 World Cup Qualifier. Has cor- ruption poisoned the game to this extent? "It saddens me a lot that, when the subject turns to football, the first thing we always seem to talk about is corruption. I don't blame you for asking; corruption is what makes the most noise, and people are right to be concerned about it... But it's very, very sad all the same, because ultimately, this is a game..." Chetcuti however admits that the fight against corruption has to take priority. "Football does not exist in isolation; it is part of society. It isn't exempt from all the other problems we associate with society. But with football in particular, there has always been a shadow of corruption. This in itself hasn't changed; what has changed in recent times is the nature and scale of the corrup- tion. For instance: where, a few years ago, it would be a case of 'Team A' approaching 'Team B' and arranging things to win a match... not that that was accept- able, but today it's a completely different ballgame. Both are wrong, obviously. But the mag- nitude of today's corruption is now enormous. There are studies that compare the turnover from global match fixing, to the turno- ver from the international drug trafficking or arms trade. Society needs to grasp the scale of the problem..." One aspect concerns the na- ture of the crime itself, which as Checuti points out, is nearly im- possible to ever prove. "There are plenty of instru- ments and tools to detect cor- ruption and show that it exists. However, proving it in a court of law is another matter. Let me give you an example: betting data. Sometimes the betting pat- terns around a certain match may be suspicious. After the game, you realise that a disproportion- ate number would have bet on a certain result, or some other out- come of the game. In those cases, you can almost scientifically say that the match was in some way 'manipulated'. But how are you going to identify – precisely and incontrovertibly, as demanded by the law – the method used to fix it? You can watch the game as many times as you like, to see who slipped or who let the ball pass him by. But how can you prove it? This is part of what makes match fixing, by its very nature, very attractive to criminal organisations. Football is simply their medium." Isn't there a money trail that can be followed? As I recall, that was how they nailed Al Capone in the end... "Yes, but there is a limit to how far you can investigate. In to- day's betting markets, there are licensed and unlicensed agencies. You can trace large cash move- ments of one, but much less in the case of the other. In this con- text, there is very little a football association can do about it in its own capacity. Only the proper authorities have the powers to in- vestigate on a criminal level. All the same, the MFA is still trying to be a driving force. One of the first things I participated in while shadowing the outgoing general secretary was a meeting of the anti-corruption task force, which brings around the same table government and opposition as well as key stakeholders such as the Malta Gaming Authority, the Police, and Sport Malta." Speaking of 'gaming': is it a co- incidence that the scale of foot- ball corruption has skyrocketed, over a period which also saw le- Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 NOVEMBER 2016 I would say the first thing we'd need to look at is our attitude: not to be defeatist. God forbid we stop believing that we can improve our level One of the valid criticisms we receive as football administrators is that we tend to focus so much on the stakeholders we represent – which is most often the club – that we don't see the bigger picture ATTITUDE BIGGER PICTURE For the love of football