A well known sports commentator on Radio 101 and Net TV and also a sportswriter, Charles Camenzuli really needs no introduction.
He has been following this career for the past 30 years and yet it was an advertisement in the Maltese daily In-Nazzjon that showed him the way. He said: “In 1974, I remember there was an advert in the Maltese daily In-Nazzjon and I applied. The then sports editor, Benny Pace, sent for me. I was still 19 years old, but I already had some experience as a sports administrator, having been on Vittoriosa FC’s committee. I was asked to do a report of a football match and I asked if it was possible for me to cover a match involving Vittoriosa Stars, my home-town club. There was no objection and I found myself covering the Vittoriosa-Melita match.
“For a number of days, I kept wondering whether it had been OK, but after about a week, I was contacted by Mr Pace who told me that the report was acceptable and he was prepared to give me the job there and then.
“Among my first reports, I still remember having covered the Malta-Libya international basketball match as well as the arrival of the great Brazilian footballer Pele, in 1975.”
From those initial days in his journalism career, Charles also became an active member of the Ghaqda Kittieba Sport (Sportswriters Association). After just two years, in 1978, he was elected general secretary under the presidency of Fr Hilary, the first president of the association.
“I served the association for a short two-year period but in 1981, I was again re-elected to the post of secretary which I occupied until last year when I was appointed president. In all I have been secretary of the association for 22 years altogether, 21 of them consecutively. I must say when I was appointed president last year at the age of 49, I became the oldest president to have been appointed. Of my predecessors, neither Fr Hilary, nor Henry Calleja were 49 years old when they were elected to the presidency,” he said.
Charles has not only been active in the Sportswriters Association. He said: “Until two years ago, I was also active with the Malta Olympic Committee, but my main work – which I consider as a hobby – is working for the World Sports Writers Association (AIPS).”
How did your connection with the world body start, I asked: “Well, it was purely by coincidence. I was in Genova in 1983 with an Under-14 football team which included Stefan Sultana, David Carabott, Ian Azzopardi and Carl Izzo among others. It was a team from the Educational Sports Centre of Fr Hilary who was also there. As president of the GhKS, he asked me whether it was possible for me to accompany him to Paris from Genova to attend the congress of the AIPS the day after. I agreed and went to Paris. It all started from there. So far I have never failed to attend a congress – I have been to 21 in all. I must say I have seen the AIPS change in all aspects – from an old society into a modern association with younger members.
“In 1989, I was honoured to be elected to sit on the executive committee. I was still 34 years old then and now I am glad that I was the youngest member to have been elected to that committee since 1924. I served on the executive committee for four years as a member.
“For two whole terms I was the financial secretary, but in the last four years I have been occupying the very important post of general secretary. It is perhaps a big satisfaction for me and for the country to have a person serving on such a world committee as was MFA president Dr Joe Mifsud when he was an executive committee member of FIFA, although even at UEFA, he occupies a highly esteemed post.
“Today AIPS boasts of 143 affiliated countries whereas in 1988/89, there were just over 100 countries. As one can see, the increase has been substantial and the work is vast. Suffice it to say that I am a sort of chairman to 23 specialist committees on particular disciplines – committees formed of journalists specialising in a particular sport. It is a big headache, but I now know what it entails and how the system works – after nine years!” he said.
Camenzuli said he had been influential in having the statute of the AIPS changed to meet today’s needs. “I could not accept the fact that the statute in the year 2000 was still the same one that had been drafted way back in 1924. My connection with the AIPS is just like a part-time job, with the only difference that there is absolutely no compensation,” he added.
Closing the chapter on the AIPS, it is another coincidence that today Charles is on his way to New York to attend the 67th congress of the World Body which he will also be addressing this evening. It is the first congress being held in the United States since 1924.
For those who do not know, Charles was also a football player of Vittoriosa Stars in his early years when the coach was another sports broadcaster, Twanny Buhagiar. “I was mostly with the reserves team, but we won two promotions from the second to the first division in those few years. Earlier, I even had a short period with the minors team and later I served on the administrative side.”
Asked to describe some positive and negative moments in his career, Camenzuli quickly started with his worst moment. And the name of Johnnie Debattista sprang to mind. That was the treasurer of the Ghaqda Kittieba Sport until he died abruptly on 29 November 1997 during an AIPS congress in Prague, in the Czech Republic.
“I still have not recovered after that big blow. It was also a severe blow to the association. He was 70 per cent of the association – he was just like a big brother to me. Ironically he died in the same year that I was elected financial secretary. I wonder whether we will be able to have another gentleman like Johnnie among us.”
He added: “There have been several positive moments. For example, when I was elected general secretary.
“There was also Malta’s 2-0 football victory over Greece in a European Championship match at the old Gzira stadium. But any participation of Maltese athletes abroad contains both sad and happy moments. Among them I recall the brilliant result achieved by Carol Galea in winning a silver medal in the Bari Mediterranean Games. That was another great moment which I really relished.”
Charles also recalled another positive experience. “Last year I was attending an international friendship football tournament in Saudi Arabia. And I was present for the first match by an Iraqi Olympic team.”
Among other things, Charles has also served on the Malta Olympic Committee for several years. And partly thanks to his MOC commitments, and also because of his vast amount of travelling, he now claims to be probably the only Maltese journalist to have covered five consecutive Olympic Games – a magnificent record which will be difficult to beat.
“In Athens I am going to be there once again and it will be my fifth Games. Of course, I will be working mainly for the AIPS in full collaboration with the Media Department of the International Olympic Committee. There will be around 17,000 journalists, including technicians, but there will also be two accredited Maltese journalists.”
Camenzuli says he still prefers being a writer rather than a broadcaster on television or radio. “It gives the person concerned a lot more satisfaction in the knowledge that what you say on radio or television is quickly forgotten, while what you write becomes part of history.”
Camenzuli is the proud owner of around 2,000 or 3,000 books on sport as well as around 17,000 magazines, all of which are catalogued.
Last but not least, he revealed that he is carrying out a lot of research into Malta’s first ever participation in the Olympic Games, which was in the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. He said: “I am collecting all the material that is available and I am hopeful that eventually it will be published, together with all the details I have managed to get hold of, even some Parliamentary debates.
“I can only say that it is very, very interesting,” said Camenzuli. “I am also in possession of some details which have not yet been published.
“I hope that my findings will be published by next year.”
Charles Camenzuli
Born: Vittoriosa, Malta 14 June 1955
AIPS career: Has attended 21 annual congresses and was elected executive committee member in Gothenburg (1989-1993); financial secretary in Istanbul (1993-97); re-elected financial secretary in Oviedo (1997-2001) and general secretary in 2001.
Among other things, he performed the role of press officer for the UEFA congress in Malta in 1990, for the Athens, Languedoc-Roussillon, Bari and Tunis Mediterranean Games and was the official delegate for the AIPS in the World Military Games in Rome in 1995, the Palma de Mallorca Universiade in 1999, as well as this year’s ice skating world championships in Dortmund. He was also the AIPS’ official delegate at the Games for European Small States in Andorra, Malta (1993 and 2003), Luxembourg, Iceland, Liechtenstein and San Marino (2001).
Sports journalism: He is a professional sports journalist with the Maltese dailies In-Nazzjon and Il-Mument. He was also head of sports of Radio 101 and a NET TV producer.
He is also a correspondent for Guerin Sportivo, Mondial, France Football, A Bola, Tuttosport and Tuttocalcio.
Sports administration: He has served on, among others, the Malta Olympic Committee, the Malta Council for Sports, Malta National Football Team Supporters Club, the Malta Educational Sports Centre, the Malta Football Association, Malta Basketball Association, Malta Sportsman of the Year Award and the Malta Table-Tennis Association. He was also the secretary of local football club Vittoriosa Stars between 1977 and 1979.
He has attended the Olympic Games in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) as well as four World Cup finals and five Mediterranean Games.
Camenzuli’s hobbies include sport-Olympism, reading, sport research, gardening and music.
He is married to Anna nèe Bonett and they have two sons, Robert, 24, and Andrea, 22.