Bertie Muscat’s sporting career got under way in the 1946-47 season as a footballer with Qormi Youngsters in the MFA Under 19 league.

He later became a waterpolo player (goalkeeper) with Sirens. For a brief period, he was also involved in athletics – the mile being his preferred event.

It was a rather quiet beginning to a great sporting career.

Bertie also took swimming very seriously, although in those days conditions were very primitive and they could only train in sea water, as no fresh-water pool was available on the island.

He recalled that one day, in 1952, he managed to beat some good swimmers in a race held for the first time in Malta – the 200m backstroke. “That gave me great satisfaction, and it happened during a meeting organised by Neptunes,” he said.

He added: “It was my participation at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958 that really inspired me to go on with my sporting career. Although those Games can never be compared with the ones being staged these days, nonetheless, I was very impressed with the great organisation and the smooth running of the whole event.

“I still remember, for example, how we were told that the bus would leave at 9.04 am, not 9.00, and it would be right on time. Throughout the whole event, the organisation was perfect. It was simply unbelievable. It was all in the hands of Sir Arthur Porritt, who was also responsible for negotiating Malta’s independ-ence six years later.

Muscat’s playing career, as a waterpolo player, came to an end in the 1959-60 season.

Bertie, in all probability the most experienced sportsman on these islands, is also well-known for his initiative in the birth of the Games for European Small Nations, first held in San Marino way back in 1983. He said: “I am proud to say that my idea was accepted way back in the early 1980s. Now that two of these Games have been staged in Malta, I am also very proud to say that it gives me great satisfaction that our top class facilities were built in order to be able to stage the Games. Before the first Games in 1993, we had hardly anything by way of first class facilities compared with those we have today.”

As an administrator, he had a very successful career, culminating in his present post, that of Secretary General of the European waterpolo body, LEN (Ligue EuropÈenne de Natation), through which Muscat has become a well-respected person in European waterpolo circles.

Among the posts he occupied, it is worth mentioning that he was president of the Amateur Swimming Association, treasurer and general secretary of the Malta Olympic Committee, and secretary of the Small Nations Games.

Between 1997 and 2001 he was also vice-president of the Malta Olympic Committee. In fact, it was in late 2001 that he tendered his resignation from the Olympic Committee, a post which had also given Muscat a large number of satisfying moments.

During his illustrious career, he has met a number of top personalities. These included His Holiness The Pope, then Italian President Sandro Pertini, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and, of course, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch. “Those were all great moments which I will cherish for the rest of my life,” he said.

Muscat has received several awards during such a long career, but those most cherished by him arrived in the past decade.

These were the Olympic Order (silver) presented to him by former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and the National Order of Merit, presented to him at The Palace in Valletta, by former president Censu Tabone. Among other awards, he was twice voted as Official of the Year (1972 – the first year of the award – and 1976) in the national sport contests.

Another award was the Trophee du Centenaire (Centennial Trophy) of the Olympic Committee, presented to him by the IOC on the occasion of the International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal.

It was in 1961 that he started his administrative career as a member of the ASA Council and the Malta Olympic Committee.

He was nominated acting general secretary in his first three years with the ASA and finally elected general secretary in 1964.

He occupied this post till 1967 and in the following year he was elected president of the association, succeeding Stanley J. Clews who did not contest the election.

He told me that he was stupefied when he found out that the ASA had failed to pay its dues to the European body. “I found out that we had not paid our membership fee for six years. That amounted to £54 at that time. Of course, in those days, it was a hefty amount and we did not have the necessary funds. Sponsorships were nonexistent and we had to raise the amount by forking out the money from our own pockets to keep the ASA alive and kicking,” he said.

Muscat’s sporting life was mostly connected with waterpolo and he said he was also instrumental in bringing over some foreign teams to play waterpolo in Malta after attending a meeting in Izmir, Turkey, in the mid-1970s.

“I appealed to the other delegates to sanction an international tournament in Malta. This was held successfully for the first time at the Neptunes Pitch and after that we had several others, especially at the Valletta pitch which used to be packed with spectators even up on the bastions,” he added.

Muscat is of the opinion that the national team’s best moment under his tenure was in the Mediterranean Games in Split in 1979. “We should have finished fourth, but because of a strange decision by the official, the Greeks managed to score an equaliser with just a few seconds to go and we missed the chance to finish in such a high place,” he said.

In 1980, Muscat tendered his resignation as ASA president and turned his eyes to the Malta Olympic Committee, where he had already been appointed acting secretary in 1979.

Asked whether he agreed that foreign waterpolo players should be allowed back in Malta to further improve the standard of the local game, Muscat said: “When the doors were opened in the 1990s, we had some top class players in Malta. The problem was that they received enormous amounts in cash which were incompatible with the financial situation of most of the clubs.

“Of course, it was a spectacle to see such great players performing here, but I was told that there was some abuse by some of these players as well. After all, without the foreigners, I do not think that our levels have dropped. In fact, we have seen the national team obtaining some very good results in recent years, especially that bronze medal in the European B championships in Sweden.”

In 1981 Muscat was elected general secretary of the MOC. He recalls: “I entered the fray exactly when Samaranch started a great revolution in the International Olympic Comm-ittee. Until then, all NOCs were dormant, but the restructuring of the IOC by the Spanish president proved beneficial to sport worldwide.

“Funds were provided towards the strengthening of NOCs as well as for the participation of athletes in top meetings, including the Olympic Games. In my time, Malta had only participated once – with a shooter in the 1968 Games – and we had never gone beyond Europe. But since 1980, we have never missed an Olympics and it is mainly through Samaranch’s initiative that the Games are those we know today,” he said. Muscat worked under former MOC presidents Major Briffa, Victor Pace, Lawrence Xuereb, Carm Borg, Magistrate Gino Camilleri and Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco. He was elected vice president in 1997 for a four-year term and was been re-elected in 2001, though he resigned after a few months.

The LEN adventure had started way back in 1982. But he became general secretary in 1990. “In actual fact, I am not just the secretary. I have even made the rules myself. I attend meetings, conferences, congresses and also have to attend international and club tournaments, most of which I organise myself.

“In all, I attend 40 of these tournaments annually. At times, I am out of Malta for more than six months of the year. I assure you it is a full-time job and a big headache, but I am proud to have been given this chance of contributing in no small measure towards the improvement and enlargement of LEN,” he said.

Muscat told me that the Games for European Small Nations took off during a meeting in Baden Baden, where he made his proposal. “After the initial hiccups, and following some meetings, IOC president Samaranch made a substantial offer during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles – the IOC was prepared to pay for 20 athletes while San Marino had also offered to pay for another 20 athletes for the first Games to be held in that republic.

After the first Games, they have been held regularly every two years. Malta and San Marino have already organised them twice, and very successfully too,” he said.

Muscat’s home is replete with Olympic and waterpolo memorabilia, including memorable pictures of such a distinguished past. They all form part of his “sport satisfactions”.

Asked to give an assessment of what progress has been registered in Maltese sport over the years, Muscat said: “I must say Maltese sport has made giant strides forward. When I was elected to the first MOC committee, I noticed that we would meet only once in a while. Now meetings are held regularly and quite frequently. Today there are central offices, there is the perfect structure to work. In the old days, it was too difficult – no offices, no personnel, no funds. We had practically nothing, but I am glad we still managed to keep going. Today, the MOC has a director for every sector, which was a step in the right direction. Everybody has his own job.

There is the equipment, the personnel and, most important of all, the funds from the government, which were started by Dr Michael Frendo in 1992 and which have increased almost every year.

“The staging of the Games for European Small States in Malta, had ‘forced’ the government to provide the necessary and much-needed facilities, and it is also because of this modern infrastructure, that Maltese sport has been able to show considerable improvement in the past few years,” he said.

Asked whether he thought there was a future for Maltese sport, Muscat said: “I believe we have to become even more professional in our approach. The era of amateurism is over: the IOC accepts it as well today. Even for training, athletes have to be paid. That is the real incentive these days.

“Otherwise,” he said, “it will be very difficult to lure youngsters to any particular discipline and practise it throughout the whole year.”