VICTOR TEDESCO celebrated his 88th birthday last Saturday. He is still a household name in Maltese football circles. His innovations, including the importation of some notable foreign players in the 1980s, not only gave a new lease of life to the Spartans, who started tasting success after success after so many years, but he was rightly credited with the salvation of the local game. The rise of the Spartans in the 1980s helped in no small way to seriously inject new life in what was then considered a moribund game. Interview by Henry Brincat
Victor Tedesco - a profile
Date of Birth: 9 April 1917
Education: Government School, The Lyceum, St Augustine’s College, St Aloysius College. He also started studying for the priesthood to become a Jesuit. At that time, he was very interested in electricity and continued his studies by correspondence, taking a City & Guilds diploma.
He left the Order after a few years and, following his father’s death, continued with his studies, graduating as an engineer at the University.
Work career: His first job was with the Air Ministry Directorate of Works at Kalafrana and he later went to Libya to work in the British Military Administration as a food distribution officer. He was there for four years, and when he came back home he started working as a contractor, offering his services in electricity, water and air conditioning to the British Services on the island. In 1959, he joined the company Laguf & McGuinness as an engineer in Libya and, for five years, he also worked for Mobil Oil. He attended a course in Texas on the famous Caterpillar – diesel engines for power stations. When he left Libya, after the 1969 revolution, Mobil Oil offered him a top post in Alaska but he declined. Following a whole year of relaxation in Malta, and after unsuccessfully contesting the 1971 General Election, he joined Albert Attard of Panta Lesco and worked on big projects in Saudi Arabia as well as in Kuwait. In 1971 he began working on his own. He subsequently established very good relations with the nephew of the King of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal, with whom he won top contracts. He returned to Malta for good in the mid-1980s.
Sports career: He started playing football at a tender age behind Msida church with a soft ball made of pieces of cloth. Later on, he used to organise competitions between the street teams, but was also a regular in a strong St Aloysius team. He played as a midfielder (half-back) and was one of Msida’s top players in his time (1950s). He also had one-year spells with Floriana, Sliema Rangers and Rabat. He was a good snooker and billiards player in the days of such stalwarts of the game as Asciak, Degabriele, Lautier, and Bartolo, and he also played table-tennis with the giants of those days, including Bonavia, Sciberras, Gambin, Felice Gay and Pellegrini Petit. In the late 1970s he joined Msida St Joseph as club president and in the mid-1980s, he agreed to become president of Hamrun Spartans – a club he led to so many successes. He was an MFA Council member for 25 years, during which he also served as a member of the executive committee on a number of occasions. For a number of years he was also a member of the MFA’s Technical Board, where he was highly respected by coaches such as Italian Pietro Ghedin, German Horst Heese and Serb Milorad Kosanovic.
Social career: He was a great actor and producer. He wrote plays and serials for radio and television and produced plays at the Manoel Theatre and Radio City Opera House, including his production of Il Passjoni, which was written by Dr Vincenzo Pellegrini. He was also a director of his own theatrical company in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s and was vice-president of the St Joseph Band Club of Hamrun.
Awards: He came second in the Best Sporting Act on one occasion – when he showed great sportsmanship in inviting Hamrun’s great rivals Valletta to the Spartans’ club for drinks on the occasion of Valletta winning the Malta football championship in 1989/90. As Hamrun club president, he won the league title on four occasions, the trophy six times and all the other local football honours on offer.
Victor is married to Josephine and they have five children: Hatty, Patricia, Doriette, Louise and Vincent.
Victor Tedesco’s main connection with sport has been through football, and he is probably known much more because of his connections with Hamrun Spartans.
Yet in the 1950s, Tedesco was a half-back (today’s mid-fielder) with Msida St Joseph. Despite his working spells abroad – in Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – he never really left Maltese football and in 1969 he became president of Msida St Joseph at a time when they were threatened with relegation to the then third division.
He said: “After one year, we were promoted to the first division (today’s premier). I brought over Peter Cruise (the first foreigner in Maltese football after the War). I started building a team with the arrival of Brincat from Senglea, Zammit from Gzira, Micallef from Valletta and Cunningham from Hibs, apart from having had Lewis Bugeja, Joe Demarco, Alfred Cardona, Farrugia and Camilleri among our ranks.
“We had a balanced team and we had a good start, beating Sliema and Valletta (twice). There was a lot of enthusiasm – even among the women who used to be dressed in red and white (Msida’s colours) at the far end of the old Gzira Stadium. We were with Valletta on top but they beat us 2-1 and on their way to Valletta, their fans broke into our club and ransacked it. On other occasion – I was not in Malta at the time – came that famous 11-0 defeat at the hands of Valletta and I decided to leave the club. From that day onwards, I decided that I would report anything connected with corruption to the authorities. In fact, later, I did make some reports in this regard which went on to be approved by the MFA,” he said.
Tedesco said he was then approached by Hamrun Spartans. “Despite being vice president of St Joseph Band Club, I never wanted to join Hamrun Spartans. It was Eddie Zammit Cordina who persuaded me, and then I accepted only on one condition – that I should dictate matters. That was in 1979. But after one year, I left when the team suffered three first half goals in a Trophy match against Senglea. When I came back from Saudi Arabia before Christmas, the team was in the relegation zone, and I decided to take over once again in 1980. Between then and the end of the season, Hamrun lost only one point – in a draw with Sliema.
“Of course we avoided relegation, and in 1982/83, I recharged my batteries. I brought over Peter Hatch and John Lineker and we went on to win the league. Enthusiasm knew no bounds. Attendances at Ta’ Qali multiplied and football took on a new lease of life. I later brought over such players as the Bulgarian Ivanov, Hankin, Morley, Barnes, Latchford, Rimmer, Leigh and Gallagher,.
“As for local footballers, we already had George Xuereb on our books. But I signed players like his brother Ray, Edwin Farrugia and Charles Zammit to strengthen a team which also included players of the calibre of Freddie Azzopardi, Michael Degiorgio, Gejtu and Leo Refalo and Salerno. The icing on the cake was the arrival from Marsa of Ray ‘Mundu’ Vella in the 1984-5 season at a time when Joe Brincat was starting his career with the senior team.
“I used to work hand in hand with Lolly Aquilina, who was one of our best ever coaches. I am proud to say that on most occasions, I was able to pinpoint our adversaries defects and make the most of them to win matches.
“In 1993 I resigned and stayed away for three years. In the 1996-7 season, I entered the fray again at a time when the club was on the verge of extinction. I was there until the following year when I left again amid great difficulties for the club. In 1998/99, the club could not avoid relegation and the players did not want to play as they were not receiving their wages.
“Those were turbulent times for the once mighty Spartans. In the 2001 I decided to go back, only to find that the MFA had slapped a prohibition on the club as it had debts of over Lm65,000, including payments to players which had not been made. I forked out Lm35,000 from my own pocket to settle most of the differences with the players.
“I also negotiated the transfer of some players to solve the financial problem and, after having the prohibition lifted, we started again on the right track. We had at least eight new youngsters in our squad, including Mauro Brincat and Roderick Bajada as well as Cesar Paiber who returned to the fold from Argentina.
“We did well to finish in the Championship pool, but somehow or other, after I was booted out, things started going wrong once again, and everyone now knows that the club still has a lot of problems to sort out. In fact, I regret to say that I do not know when they will ever be able to return to their rightful place in the Premier league,” he said.
Among his main projects was the Hamrun Ground which, when it was opened, was named after him – the Victor Tedesco Stadium. “The idea came to me in about 1984. I had suggested an area near Farsons, at Mriehel, but then Minister of Works and Sport Lorry Sant proposed the Mile-End and I agreed. Later, however, we had problems with the minister, but in 1996, under Joe Debono Grech, the ground was finally opened – after 12 long years of discussions and construction work.
Tedesco did not fail to mention the good home results – almost on every occasion – achieved by Hamrun Spartans in European competitions. Among them he recalled the 4-0 defeat against Benfica – then under Sven Goran Eriksson – at Ta’ Qali. “We could have scored at least twice in the opening 30 minutes before they took over,” he said.
Tedesco also recalled the good matches against Scotland’s Dundee United, England’s Everton, Italy’s Reggina, Rapid Vienna, Dinamo Moscow, Real Valladolid and Albania’s Nentori Tirana and Partizani Tirana.
“The matches against these teams at Ta’ Qali were all memorable,” he said.
But the greatest achievement was the elimination from the now defunct Cup Winners Cup of Irish club Ballymena on a 3-1 aggregate (including a 0-1 victory in Ireland) in the 1984-85 season. “Our results had been so encouraging. When we played at Ta’ Qali following the 0-1 win away to Ballymena, the stadium was packed to capacity. I had never seen such a crowd at our national stadium,” he added.
At the end of the interview, Tedesco spoke about his grandson, Gianluca Calabretta, the son of Victor’s daughter Patricia, who was also involved in the running of Hamrun Spartans, together with her father, in the 1990s.
Tedesco predicts a very bright future for him. “I am sure this lad, who is now 17, will make it to the top.
He has joined Italian Serie C side Acireale, in Sicily, the place where his father was born. He has had spells at the Juventus Soccer School in Turin, where he was described as a future prospect, and he has played for the MFA School (Under 17) team, having been chosen from among the Floriana youngsters.
But now the decision has been taken and he will soon start playing for Acireale.
“It has to be seen whether he will decide to play for Malta in the future,” said Tedesco.