The Youth Football Association has ignored a recommendation made by the Office of the Commissioner for Children to schedule football games, which are played on weekend afternoons in September, to a different time, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

Last week, this newspaper reported that an e-mail was sent by one of the clubs – and endorsed by others – suggesting that football matches are not played at 1pm during the month of September.

Lizio Vella, Marsa youth nursery secretary who raised the complaint in an e-mail, copied to The Malta Independent on Sunday, wrote that the teenagers were being exposed to excessive heat and that the time when matches are played should be changed.

The Youth Football Association, which is a branch of the Malta Football Association and organises leagues for the Under 17 and Under 15, said in its reply that it was studying the proposal.

Yet, it seems that the YFA is taking long to study the issue and come up with an alternative schedule of matches – last year, the association had been told to set other dates and times for the football games, but this year it came up with the same programme.

The Commissioner for Children, Carmen Zammit, told this newspaper that last year it had written to the Youth FA requesting that matches are not held in the early afternoon on weekends in September.

“We do not agree that children should be exposed to excessive afternoon heat of the summer months. The Health Department issues warnings for people not to stay in the sun at the same hours that young people are playing football. It is not acceptable that teenagers play football at that time of the day,” Ms Zammit said.

Last year, her office had received an anonymous letter in which the same complaint was made, and it had immediately raised the matter with the Youth FA. Yet the association did not heed the Commissioner for Children’s recommendation.

The Commissioner said that the law does not enable her office to take the matter further. “We do not have the power to stop such activities. All we can do is recommend what should be done in the best interests of children, and we cannot do more than we have already done,” Ms Zammit said.

Following the article that appeared last Sunday, the Commissioner for Children’s office said that it will be writing to the Youth FA once again – in the hope that, next year, the Youth FA can come up with a different programme.

Efforts to contact the Youth FA for its comments proved fruitless.