As promised last week, once again I will deviate again from the refereeing world in order to comment on the successful participation of most of the fellow Maltese athletes at the Small Nations Games held in Andorra last week.
Seven days ago I could only briefly analyse the games as they were only just starting. However now we know the full extent of the Maltese participation.
It is no secret that, as a nation, Malta cannot boast much of a great financial backing to the national sport bodies when compared to other fellow small countries like Cyprus, Luxembourg and Iceland.
It is easy for someone to point his hand towards the government, but in my opinion it is basically the fault of the poor sporting attitude and culture reigning on our islands.
Presently, many Maltese are in a state of euphoria and great elation towards the medal winners and the MOC. Yet in the past, things quickly returned to normal and the same athletes and even the MOC found ‘closed doors’ and a lack of backing of all sorts.
I honestly hope that we, as a nation, finally learn that success in sports is not a matter of just the competition itself but the fruit of countless hours of training and sacrifice accomplished in a consistent and serious manner. The competition itself is only the tip of a large mountain.
I have followed sports for a number of years and was and am still also lucky to experience regularly, in a first-hand way, professional and top competition in my sport abroad. This has led me to easily notice that we, Maltese, have an enormous hunger to taste and celebrate national success and I am sure that these games made not only the contingent in Andorra proud but also the majority of the population. It is not normal for the Maltese to achieve such a satisfaction in international competition, even though one has to keep a sound footing and remember the real level of the games as opposed to higher level continental and world events.
In my opinion, the major element behind this success is the intelligent setting of the minimum standards by the MOC. No one can deny that many were those who, initially, opposed the setting of such high (for the level we are normally accustomed to) standards.
A number of promising and talented athletes even failed to reach these standards (but that is a rule of sport) and had to forfeit going to represent Malta in Andorra. (If someone thinks that it is easy for me to comment because I cannot feel any displeasure, please rest assured that I know a bit the feeling as I was supposed to referee in the games but had to stay in Malta due to lack of funds by the sport bodies).
Talking of standards, I fully agree with Pippo Psaila when he openly stated that there will be no space in the future for those who are not ready to prepare themselves in a professional way. This is the type of sport culture I want to see being seeded in our community.
Even from my own experience, I can easily state that no one can reach any international goal without sacrifice and acute preparation. Now, the competitive field is much more dynamic than the refereeing one as sport levels never reach a plateau but are always rising higher.
Thus one cannot have short term goals based on today’s results because these results will easily be surpassed tomorrow.
In last week’s column I also made a reference and a plea as regards the foreign element in the contingents.
The MOC president, Justice Farrugia Sacco, said earlier this week that we only had six ‘foreigners’ whilst others had about 60. He then also (I admire him for this) said that if others are prepared to leave them out, Malta would reciprocate.
I agree to a certain point but my wish is, as I wrote last week, why not be a force of change ourselves and push forward the idea to abolish the use of such ‘foreigners’ which we then cannot use in other official competitions.
Unfortunately last Sunday I was, without having any choice whatsoever, in the middle of a discussion where a number of people were contending that we should be ashamed of our football team (after the 0-6 loss to Sweden) whilst mentioning the Andorra success.
My reaction was not that liked but I strove hard to point out that we have to compare like with like if we are to have an honest discussion.
With no disrespect to the athletes in Andorra, the competition at the Small Nations Games is between eight of the smallest countries in Europe (even though one still finds ever improving standards and even top athletes here as well) whilst our football team plays in an open competition and everyone knows where our level, not only in football, but generally in all sports (especially team sports), stands.
However what should be of a real lesson to our footballers is the pride and positive attitude shown by most of the athletes in Andorra. Most of them receive no form of compensation for the time they sacrifice in their quest for glory (one here has to criticise the fact that unfortunately the medal winners, especially the gold medal winners, received no form of reward for their venture).
In fact most of the athletes train hard (I would highlight the swimmers and the track athletes) in rain and shine, heat and cold, at times alone and without having much media coverage.
On the other hand, our top footballers (other sports as well, to be honest), especially the young ones, are asking for high salaries and putting in far less effort.
I want to conclude by once again congratulating those who brought joy in Andorra and the team backing them up from MOC.
Yet, this is just a bus stop in our journey to higher standards. It is fair to celebrate the success right now but one cannot keep on celebrating. It is also time to look ahead, learn from the past experiences and project better plans in the short term and also in the long term without anyone thinking of having arrived at the destination and with everyone keeping his foot steadfast on the ground
.Next week I will try to analyse statistically the ventures of our female basketball team in Andorra who won the bronze medal.
The general view seems to be divided with some stating that this was a positive result as a medal has been brought home for the third successive international tournament whilst others believe that this was a disappointing result.
Who is right? Or are both wrong?
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