The Ministry for Home Affairs has said that the government stopped Teddy Bajada, a police major, to serve as coach of Sannat Lions after he was reinstated. This was done so that the police major would abide by police regulations.

This, the ministry said, contrasts from what was done under PN administrations.

“Ever since he joined the police force in 1982, the police officer in question always involved himself in sport related activities, including serving as a coach for a number of Gozitan clubs.

“Perhaps Dr Azzopardi did not have this information or perhaps conveniently forgot. It is to say the least ironical that that this administration, different from previous ones, ordered the major to stop serving as a coach but Dr Azzopardi is raising the issue now, however he was mum when the PN was in government when the said major was really breaching police regulations,” the ministry argued.

The ministry was reacting to a story published in The Malta Independent this week which showed that the police major served as coach during the previous football season after PN MP Jason Azzopardi handed over a copy of a match sheet which bore Mr Bajada’s name to this newsroom to prove his point.

The issue initially started last week when Dr Azzopardi raised the matter in parliament. Sannat Lions denied that the coach was a police major.

The ministry said that in the article of four days ago, Dr Azzopardi stuck to his claims that the mentioned police major was still a coach, quoting an excerpt of the article which read: ‘Dr Azzopardi is insisting the police major is the coach of Sannat Lions’.

“This claim was denied categorically by Sannat Lions who gave the name of the present coach. These allegations were also verified by the ministry,” the ministry said.

“The match sheet which was used as a piece of ‘important’ evidence by Dr Azzopardi is dated 23rd April but the parliamentary question by Dr Azzopardi was read on 15 July.

“It is not the first time that Dr Azzopardi has been misinformed. He submits a myriad of parliamentary questions, and it is definitely not the first time that Dr Azzopardi makes false assertions or presumptions.

“Despite this, our Ministry is not alienated by petty issues and remains focused on matters which are really of national interest,” the ministry said.

Police major served as coach