Hibernians yesterday announced they have signed a three-year deal with Medsea Shipping Agency.
The company will be replacing GoMobile as the club’s main sponsors.
In making the announcement, the club’s legal representative, Dr Pio Valletta, thanked GoMobile for their support during the past five years – a period he described as ‘golden’ for the Paola women’s basketball team.
Dr Valletta added Hibs now hoped that the long string of successes with GoMobile will be extended through the sponsorship of Medsea, which will see the company spending Lm3,000 throughout the three years of the deal.
Company managing director Anthony Vassallo, who is also the new president of the Hibernians basketball women’s sector, augured that the sponsorhip would bring more success towards Paola’s way, adding that they were also prepared to help the nursery of the club, which is definitely the biggest on the island.
He presented the sponsorship cheque to the club’s vice-president Charles Deguara at the end of the news conference.
Jean Paul Sammut, a representative of Eurosport, who also sponsor the club’s kit and equipment, presented the new attractive kit of the club for next season.
Dr Valletta went on to explain the position taken by the club after last season’s saga over the issue of players Josephine Grima and Joselle Cardona. They had claimed they were ineligble to play for Rabat Depiro as they had played in the Italian league, but their protest and appeal had been turned down by the MBA.
Yesterday, Dr Valletta said the club had decided to try and sort out the issue locally instead of going directly to FIBA. “We believe that what happened was anomalous and unfair and we wish to see the rule changed. We will wait to see what will happen at the annual general meeting of the MBA. We have strong indications that a change in the rules is quite possible. If there is no move, then we will have to take action which we feel would be necessary and we would not exclude the possibility of referring our case to FIBA,” he said.
The club also announced it was on the verge of acquiring the services of Caroline Fenech while Lucienne Bezzina and Beverlee Zammit were also making tremendous progress after last season’s injuries.