I really cannot understand our Prime Minister.

On the one hand he pushes to sell our Maltese identity to people with money to spend through the infamous citizenship scheme that led to so much controversy earlier on in this legislature. Non-Europeans, even those with shady characters, can now apply to hold a Maltese passport which gives them access to all that is Maltese and consequently all that is European.  He goes as far as having a head-on clash with the European Union about his idea, and finally gets his way in spite of serious opposition from all quarters, except of course from those who accept anything he says as the Gospel truth.

On the other hand, he chooses to issue a stern warning to a football club, which is for all intents and purposes a private company which is capable of making up its own mind, not to sign a professional footballer who has been convicted of rape and released from prison. At the same time the government's policy is based on reforming people who serve time for any crime they commit and re-integrating them into society. Even his own Justice Minister Owen Bonnici reminded him that people deserve a second chance.

Mind you, this in no way should be interpreted as being condoning of the crime committed by Ched Evans. What he did was despicable, and he deserved the punishment he got, once he was found guilty. In my mind the jail-time he was given was too lenient and the amount of time he actually served in prison was too short, but that's because the justice system in the UK - and here in Malta it is more or less the same - is still too soft on people who commit sex crimes.

But, other than this, once he has been released, it should not mean that he could no longer exercise his profession. If he had been a carpenter, would he have been deprived of carpentry for the rest of his life? No, I would think, and the same should be for footballers.

Players have in the past been condemned for offences to the sport - like match-rigging or abuse of performance-enhancing substances - but unless the misbehaviour is repeated, once they serve their sentence they are allowed to return to competition.

Had the Prime Minister waited for a few hours he would have come to know that the player cannot actually come to play in Malta because conditions imposed on sex offenders in the UK rule out the possibility of working abroad. And he would have been spared the embarrassment of his outburst on the social media.

Joseph Muscat should have been the last person to share an opinion about this.

As a prime minister, he should not have involved himself in the dispute.

As a prime minister of a government that promotes the re-integration of prisoners, he should not have come up with a statement that contradicts this policy.

As a prime minister who opened up Maltese citizenship to anyone who has the means to buy it, he should not have spoken about role models.

And, as a prime minister who has sealed deals with countries where human rights are not a priority and corruption is rife - such as China and Azerbaijan - he should not have brought up the subject of defining Malta's reputation.