NORMAN DARMANIN DEMAJO is mostly known in local football circles as he had occupied the post of MFA treasurer during most of the 1990s. In 1973, he was still at Third Division Qrendi FC, when he was spotted by Valletta FC. The latter paid Qrendi Lm750 (then a hefty sum) to get his services. Wearing the No. 8 white jersey, he quickly rose to fame with the citizens as he helped them to three championship wins and three FA Trophy wins apart from other competitions in his eight-year spell. He was unlucky not to have worn the national jersey as he was always in the shadow of Floriana star midfielder Willie Vassallo. Despite his dispute with the MFA president, which led to his resignation, he bears no grudge towards Dr Joe Mifsud – “in life you have to move on” and talks highly of other persons with whom he worked very closely during his spell at the MFA. He is now a director of Luxol Sports Club and is also mainly co-responsible for a major project that the club has embarked on. Here, he tells his story to Henry Brincat.
An accountant by profession, Norman Darmanin Demajo made a hit at the MFA when he was elected to fill the post of treasurer in the early 1990s, soon after the resignation of Dr George Abela from the presidency.
He was responsible for changing the old methods into the computerised system which the association still makes use of today. A dispute with MFA president Dr Joe Mifsud later led to his resignation.
Several years have passed now and Darmanin Demajo said: “Despite all that has been said, I enjoyed a good working relationship with Dr Mifsud for most of my term at the MFA – things turned sour only in the end. I did, however, also have an excellent relationship with all the MFA staff with whom I had the pleasure to work with. The stadium manager, and my assistant treasurer, George Micallef (Il-Bobby) was a great person to work with, and I learned so much from him and always respected his opinion. Ivan Mizzi, the MFA accountant, was my loyal right hand man when it came to the figures, and I knew I could rely on him completely in the preparation and finalisation of the MFA accounts, by no means an easy task.
“In management, I believe you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with, so I always did my best to motivate and lead by example, and be there for them when the pressure was on. The same applied to the people I worked with at Ta’ Qali, where I recall Nunzio Frendo and Ronnie Attard were always at hand to assist me in my duties. While there was no escaping my administrative and financial obligations, I have to admit I always felt more “at home” with the coaching and technical staff. I was, am, and will always be a football player at heart, and I used to thoroughly enjoy the opportunity that my position gave me to spend time with, and learn, from the various technical staff that passed through the dressing rooms of Ta’ Qali during my term.
“The list may be too long to mention, but always in my mind will linger the philosophies of Carmel “Busby” Gauci, the MFA kit manager, the incredible knowledge of Prof. Dusko Tomas, who was engaged as a physical fitness instructor under Kosanovic, the tactical acumen of Pietro Ghedin, and the down to earth, low profile, yet “irreplaceable” presence of Tony Gambin, and Dr David Attard. I missed working with Fr Hilary because he retired almost on my appointment. However, I managed to catch up with him later when I was doing some voluntary work at the Millennium Chapel and we are still involved together in the odd project.”
Norman has now almost retired from his profession as an accountant in order to focus completely on Luxol Sports Club – his true love. He said: “We are not considered a big club by any means, but we have consistently invested in our infrastructure, and always tried to attract the best people to our management team and coaching staff. We were pioneers and leaders of the five-a-side soccer concept played on artificial turf – now we have moved up another level, and are in the process of constructing an 800-seater stadium with a “state-of-the- art” artificial turf.
“As with all previous Luxol projects, financing is private but with the welcome support and backing of APS Bank, with whom we have an excellent relationship. This project has been in my mind ever since I left the MFA, so in 2001 I flew to the UK and met with Paul Falzon, our club chairman, who was living in the UK at the time. I showed Paul the initial plans, and it did not take me long to convince him to return to Malta to help me to revive the club from nursery to administrative to infrastructural levels. We have worked together ever since, and this has culminated in the current project in hand – the biggest of all. It will be a very big investment, considering that we are a small club. But we are both eternal optimists and we also like to think we know this business well,” he said.
Before taking an administrative approach in sport, Darmanin Demajo had also become well-known as a hard-working midfielder in the ranks of Valletta FC. In fact, he had come from nowhere to win a place in the City senior string after just four matches in the Reserves team. “After those initial four matches, I never missed my place in the City line-up. We had a formidable front line which included Vince “Maxi” Magro and Carlo Seychell on the wings, Charles Agius (father of Gilbert) as central striker, and Tony Giglio (father of Stefan ), Denis Fenech and myself as midfielders. I joined Valletta at the “right time” and we managed to get it right and help Valletta rise again from the ashes after a lean period. The 70s were definitely Valletta’s years too.”
The former lanky City midfielder also said that he always considered himself to be of good conduct on the pitch. “I was never red-carded and I was handed yellow cards on just one or two occasions. Self-discipline was important to me. Of course, I was a sore loser – no one enjoys losing – but I always respected the opponents and the referees’ decisions,” he stated.
Darmanin Demajo encountered some difficult matches when he was UEFA delegate. “Two most difficult matches were the Spartak Moscow-Inter and Galatasaray-Leeds games. In the latter match, two Leeds supporters were killed on the eve of the match, and, as UEFA delegate, I found myself in a very difficult and sensitive situation which no amount of training could have prepared me for. Although with God’s help, the situation was kept under control, and the match eventually played as scheduled, I can never forget the hours of extreme tension that we passed through before the match.” UEFA later recommended Norman for his total handling of this affair.
Asked to mention some memorable moments in his playing career, the former MFA treasurer said he will never forget his first championship win with Valletta. “Tony Giglio scored with a curling freekick against Hibernians in the final minute of the match to secure the title in front of a packed stadium at Gzira. I also remember a Trophy final against Hibernians where I scored the winning goal. Moreover, I will always cherish the moment I made by debut in the European competitions. It ended in a 1-0 win over HJK Helsinki at Gzira,” he remarked.
As a player he had very few disappointments. “ I remember one particular match when we lost a game against Floriana, and the fans were so upset that the Valletta committee decided it was “not safe” for us to return as we usually did to the club’s premises in St Lucy Street, Valletta, where we had our personal belongings. Instead, we were discreetly taken to the house of Mr Alfred Mizzi, who was the club secretary at the time, and who lived in Gwardamangia, and after having a cup of tea, we were individually taken home by escort about two hours after the match ended. I’ll never forget the look on my dad’s face when I walked in at home wearing my football shoes and full kit!
“Although Valletta had a reputation of being a bit “naughty”, I must admit I never had any trouble and actually had the most enjoyable years in my total football playing career.”
Norman Darmanin Demajo – a profile
Date of birth: 19 April 1952, in Naxxar
Education: Good Shepherd School at Balzan, St Aloysius College, Birkirkara and the MCAST.
Work career: In between playing football, accountancy has been his main profession, mainly practising as a tax and management consultant, through his own private company and practice.
Sporting career: He started playing football at school, but when he was 17 years old, and studying at the Junior College of the Malta University, he was spotted playing soccer in the inter-faculty league and was lured to join Qrendi FC by their president at the time, Joe Mifsud (the current MFA President). After a four-year spell with Qrendi FC, and having helped the club to survive their third division status in a couple of relegation deciders, he joined Valletta FC in July 1973, where he stayed till the end of 1981-82 after having had “the time of my life”, winning all the cups and competitions that the game had to offer in those days. When he was 30 years old, he decided it was time to move on and seek new challenges, and he accepted an offer to play for Melita for one season. The following season in 1983/84, however, he transferred to his first love Luxol St Andrew’s FC, who had just been accepted into the MFA fold. His first match for Luxol was a 4-0 win over Naxxar. He played for St Andrew’s FC for another seven seasons before retiring, at the end of season 1989/90, at the venerable age of 37. During this period, Norman was also involved in the club’s administrative structure and served both as a council member for St Andrew’s FC and also as an executive committee member of the Malta Football Association.
Coaching career: When he quit the game as a player, he turned his eyes on a coaching career. During 1990 and 1991, he attended coaching courses at Ta’ Qali and obtained a Foundation and C licence certificates, and in 1992 travelled to Scotland and obtained his B licence certificate with the Scottish FA, under the guidance of Andy Roxburgh, then national team coach of Scotland, and now technical director of UEFA. His future coaching plans were never to materialise, however, after Dr George Abela resigned from his post as MFA president in 1992, and was succeeded by Dr Joe Mifsud, who invited Norman to consider joining the association and contest the post of treasurer. He accepted and was elected to that post in the general meeting that followed.
Administrative career: Between 1992 to 2001, he occupied the post of MFA treasurer where he was responsible for the computerisation of the accounts department. During that period he occupied other posts within the MFA, as well as becoming a member of the Youth Committee of UEFA. He has served as a UEFA delegate on several occasions for European competitive matches. At present, he is the CEO of Luxol Sports Club and is also very involved in his other “passion” – running courses and training programmes, both locally and abroad, in creativity and lateral thinking. Ironically, it was actually a football incident that stimulated his interest in the subject, leading to his becoming a certified trainer, in 1999, in Edward de Bono thinking tools and methods. Since then, he has lectured both locally and abroad to a wide ranging audiences in the sporting, educational and business sector.
Awards/Successes: During his nine-season spell at Valletta, he won the League and FA Trophy three times each, and was an ever-present in the three club competitions – Champions Cup, Cup Winners Cup or UEFA Cup. He also helped the team win other competitions such as the Independence Cup, the Testaferrata Cup and the Sons of Malta Cup.