JOE SACCO is another household name among the local sporting fraternity, especially football. He is normally associated with his local club, Gudja, even though he is now a resident of Pieta, but from 1982 to 2000 he was the general secretary of the Malta Football Association, which is considered as the top sporting association on this island. During that period he travelled extensively to attend congresses and conferences about football, but has also watched several top matches in Europe during his career, among them also most, if not all, of Malta’s international matches. He was also a member of UEFA’s Fair Play Committee and a member of the Fair Play and Ethics Panel of the same European body. Here he tells his story to Henry Brincat
Joe Sacco – a profile
Date of birth: 9 June 1940, in Gudja
Education: Attended Primary School till 1953. From 1953 to 1959, he attended The Lyceum in Hamrun, where he obtained his Senior (GCE) “O” levels.
Work career: He has always been a civil servant and his first job was at the Public Works Department. He later worked at the Industry Department and the Agriculture Department, which later became the Agriculture Ministry. He retired as a principal in 2001.
Sporting career: He played some football as a goalkeeper with the Public Works team, which also included some well known figures such as former Rabat player Charles Chase, Joe Farrugia and former international referee, now Lija FC president, Charles Scerri. In 1958, he also played for the Gudja minors team, his first match being against Pieta. He was active in the Government League, until the mid 1970s, when the government league ceased to be organised.
Administrative career: He started his career occupying the post of secretary of Gudja FC and later became an MFA Council member. His main administrative job was at the MFA. In 1981, he was appointed general secretary ad interim after the resignation of the late Frank Attard. A year later he was officially appointed general secretary, and only resigned in 2000 due to ill health after a very successful spell.
Social activities: Joe was also a well-known singer in the early 1960s, and took part in the Malta Song Festival in 1963, which was held at the Catholic Institute where he sang L-Iltima, written by Maestro Pace. He also took part in festivals like Canzoni d’Oggi at the Radio City Opera House in Hamrun alongside such top singers as Enzo Gusman, Mary Spiteri and Tony Agius.
Awards: He received a top award from UEFA President Lennart Johansson in 2004 – the Order of Merit – in Limassol, Cyprus, during the UEFA Congress. In April 1989 he entered the Official of the Year contest, having been nominated by the MFA, and finished third.
Publications: Last year he edited and published a highly interesting pictorial and statistical book about the national team’s history entitled 45 sena ta’ football internazzjonali ta’ Malta (45 years of international football for Malta). Now he is working on a Gudja FC book, which will contain all the possible statistics since its foundation in 1949.
Joe is married to Connie and they have two daughters, Mariella and Shirley.
It is not easy to fill the post of general secretary of Malta’s top sports association, the Malta Football Association (MFA).
Joe Sacco had been a council member representing Gudja FC. But he said: “In the late 1970s, there were several council members who wanted a change in the association’s administration. Dr George Abela and Dr Joe Mifsud successfully contested the election and took over as president and vice-president respectively. Dr Abela asked me if I would like to be the general secretary, if approved by the council, and I accepted. At first, for a whole year, I was general secretary ad interim, but after a year, I was appointed general secretary officially,” he said.
Asked what it meant to occupy such a top post in such an association, Sacco said: “To tell the truth, I did not know what it meant. I never imagined it was so completely different from what I had been used to doing before. But as time went by, I became used to the job and I liked it, especially the fact that I started meeting a lot of people, both locally and abroad.
“It also meant that I had to sacrifice a lot of my spare time. In fact, I rarely used to see my family – arriving home late (always after 11pm) and that included most Saturdays and Sundays. The fact that my wife, Connie, is also keen on football helped me a lot to stay in that post for so many years,” he said.
Asked to recall some moments which will always remain in his memory, he said: “One of the black moments during those 18 years was in the 1980s, when we had to face a referees’ strike which lasted 15 days. We had to bring some referees from Britain to control local matches, one of whom, a certain Colin Downey, suffered sunburn as he was not accustomed to our hot weather. That strike created a big problem for the association, something which we had never faced before,” he said.
He added that another moment he will never forget was the day he was attending a meeting of the UEFA Fair Play Committee, of which he formed part. “I suggested that the players should shake each other’s hands before matches, after having watched it being done successfully in the 1996 European Championship in England. I said this should be done in international matches as well as domestic matches and I felt enormous satisfaction when it was later approved by the Executive Committee of UEFA and also adopted by all associations,” he said.
Another great day in his life and career was when the late Pope John Paul II was at Ta’ Qali, with that huge number of young people who filled the stadium to capacity. “That was another great experience which is difficult to forget,” he said.
Other moments which were important in his career included his attendance at the congresses of UEFA. “On such occasions, one meets a lot of top football personalities from all over the continent. However, I think only the 1998 congress was very important, as we had to approve EUFA’s new statute,” he said.
He added that he took an active part in the organisation of the UEFA Congress in Malta in 1990. “It was here that Johansson was elected UEFA president. We were given a lot of praise for the way we organised the event,” he said.
I asked Joe what international matches involving Malta will remain close to his heart and he quickly responded: “Of all the matches I have seen, I must say I was highly impressed by the performance of the team that lost just 3-2 to mighty Portugal in Lisbon, at the old Stadium of Light, where Michael Degiorgio had also opened the scoring.
“At home, I will remember another great performance, that is, when Malta beat Belgium 1-0. It was a real pity that there was a very poor attendance for that match at Ta’ Qali. Our team played some wonderful football and the Belgians were completely taken by surprise, so much so that their coach had resigned soon after that defeat. And let’s not forget that that match heralded their start of preparations for the World Cup finals!”
Sacco has been abroad with the youngsters as well, on several occasions. “I’ve been to Israel seven times and I have seen several players, now playing top class football, begin their careers in the Under 16 and Under 17 categories. One of them I remember well is Hibs goalie Mario Muscat, who made his debut on a rainy day in Israel.”
Apart from attending UEFA congresses and other conferences, Sacco has travelled with his wife on several occasions to meet friends and watch some top matches. He has been to London, Manchester, Greece and Germany and other places around Europe. “I watched the European Championship final between Holland and Russia in Germany, including that great Van Basten goal which paved the way for Holland to win their only major honour so far.
“I have also been to Athens, where I watched the European Cup final between Hamburg and Juventus – the famous Felix Magath goal which still haunts Juventus – as well as two FA Cup finals in London, at the former Wembley Stadium. I have also been to Manchester where I attended matches at both Maine Road and Old Trafford with some of my friends,” he added.
Asked what had been the biggest disappointment in his career, he said: “After so many years of loyal service to the MFA, I feel that today I am being ignored. Up to now, I do not even have the opportunity to watch matches at Ta’ Qali, as no card has been assigned to me – as was the custom in the past.
“It is ironic that I have to pay an admission fee today to see football matches in Malta, although while I am abroad, I am normally given VIP treatment, together with my wife.
“Football has always been my life and it will remain so forever,” he concluded.