With some positive results at national level and at domestic club level in European competitions, one could be forgiven for thinking that all is well in Maltese football right now. 

But off the pitch, there is still a lot to be concerned about when it comes to the sustainability of the sport.  This is because the vast majority of football clubs remain overwhelmingly reliant on their Club President.

The Club President, while not the de-facto owner of a club since they are elected by members during an Annual General Meeting, has the capability to be a football club’s saviour, or the author of its downfall.

One need only to look as far as Joseph Portelli’s involvement with Hamrun Spartans.  A club which was no stranger to financial issues and which was yo-yoing around Malta’s lower divisions for a few years was suddenly transformed into the closest thing Malta has to a fully professional football club in every sense of the word – be it on pitch, in terms of facilities, youth football, marketing and public relations, or any other field.

On the flipside, one only needs to look at the case of Sliema Wanderers and its misadventure with Tunisian Catco Group, which took over the club with the promise of a €25 million investment – a promise which never came to fruition, leaving players without salaries, foreigners employed as full-timers left relying on donations from their own teammates so not to starve, and the historic club relegated from the Premier League for the first time in 37 years.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, the secretary general of the Malta Football Players Association Carlo Mamo reflects on this subject, and points out that the reality for almost all clubs is that if their current President had to leave they would either have to rush around to find a replacement, or be consigned to seeing the club lose its players and potentially its spot in the division it is in.

The formation of the Malta Premier League as a body to represent the football clubs which play in the league with the same league could be seen as a step forward in order to enhance the league’s product, but are some of the things it is proposing really the priority for Maltese football at the moment?

For example, one of the chief focuses mentioned so far by the body is the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in Malta’s leagues – a no doubt necessary reform in the long-term, but also a similarly no doubt costly exercise.

This is being said at a time when an MFPA survey showed that half of the football players plying their trade in the Maltese Premier League face delays on the payment of their salary of between one and three months.

Something like this is enough to discourage Maltese players from turning fully professional and focusing only on football.  Why would they turn professional and dedicate their lives to football when there is a 50-50 chance at Malta’s top level that they might not get their pay cheque on time?  Ultimately these are people who have financial commitments like the next person, and a missed pay cheque is simply not worth the risk.

One can argue that the introduction of something like VAR (for instance) will enhance the Maltese football product and therefore encourage more investment on the road to sustainability, but certainly in the present day it’s clear that many of these football clubs are living beyond their means.

Sustainability is at the core of what Maltese football needs in order to really move forward and become truly professional.