Michael Galea and Stephen Azzopardi joint winners of Sportsmanship Trophy

The joint winners of this year’s Sportsmanship Trophy are Michael Galea and Stephen Azzopardi, player and coach respectively, of Birkirkara Football Club.

This was announced by Chief Justice Emeritus, Prof J.J. Cremona, chairman of the Adjudicating Committee on PBS Television.

The citation was read out by Lewis Portelli, honorary secretary of the committee, who founded this Award together with the late Fred Bennett in 1974.

The winners received diplomas while the trophy will be formally presented at a later stage during a major sports activity involving Birkirkara FC.

It was on 31 October 2004, during a Premier league match against St Patrick FC, when Birkirkara were leading 2-0. Birkirkara could have easily added to their score when St Patrick defender Arnold Buttigieg pulled a muscle and fell to the ground leaving the way clear for Michael Galea to proceed unhampered towards goal.

Team coach Stephen Azzopardi immediately shouted instructions from the bench for Galea to terminate the action in order for the opposing player to receive medical attention.

At this point, Michael Galea was already in an ideal position to shoot at goal though it was evident that he did not intend to proceed further and was in fact “seeking approval” from the bench to kick the ball out of play …. which he did. Thus his team – Birkirkara – in a most sporting manner, did not profit from a very unfortunate injury to an opposing player.