A few weeks ago the Malta Billiards and Snooker Association (MBSA) lamented the fact that it was unable to send the national team to take part in the world team event at the USA Championships starting this week.

It was certainly an event in which Malta would have been among the favourites having also won the European title on some occasions in the past.

Since that announcement much has been said and written in the local papers about this ‘missed chance’ for local sport, in this case snooker.

It has been argued, quite rightly, that snooker has been and still is one of the few sports disciplines where the Maltese can stand up honourably and get positive results against all foreigners.

The MBSA said in a statement that it lacked the funds to send its national team for the USA event, adding that unless more sponsorships become available, then future participation in competitions abroad will have to be decreased considerably.

In that statement, the MBSA said that it felt that the Malta Olympic Committee (MOC) provided the association with Lm1,800 annually, but this was certainly not enough to meet their demands. The association said its budget to send its national teams to take part in all competitions throughout the year, reached the meagre sum of Lm4,500.

The MBSA also laid the blame, in part, on the lack of adequate funding from the Kunsill Malti ghall-Isport (KMS) which forms part of the Ministry of Education.

The association event went further to state that what they are requesting could be described as peanuts ‘when one considers that William Chetcuti alone has been given a budget of Lm120,000’ till the Beijing Olympics.

Of course, the association must feel disappointed and I agree with the MBSA that it is not adequately funded. I am also disappointed that Malta is not among the participants at the US world championship.

However, I cannot agree on several matters over which, even the public, especially those who have expressed their opinion in the newspapers, still cannot understand.

First of all, the MBSA states that the MOC provides it with a sum of Lm1,800 which, it feels is not enough. That is true, but let us not forget that the MOC’s priority is to help Olympic Sport. That is the primary reason for its continued support of young shooter William Chetcuti who (let’s be honest) is the only athlete at present on these islands who can provide us with some real Olympic satisfaction in the form of a medal. Everyone must agree that Chetcuti is our only prospect for a medal in the forthcoming Olympic Games in 2008 in Beijing, China. And even here, to reach such world heights, it is not going to be easy and I feel even the Lm120,000 to be spent on Chetcuti’s participation in events leading to the Beijing event, may prove to be not enough.

Unfortunately Snooker does not form part of this Olympic category yet and, in my opinion, it is already a step forward for the MOC to spend some of the funds allocated to it by the KMS on Snooker, as it does on other associations who do not fall under the Olympic umbrella.

The ordinary man in the street may hear time and again that Malta has had and still produces world and European champions in the field of snooker and billiards. That is the absolute truth, but not all the truth. For we must also say that our championship titles arrived in the amateur field, which is certainly not the top echelon of the sport.

We had and still have Tony Drago and Alex Borg competing against the world’s best in the professional field in this sphere and I consider this to be a great honour for Maltese Snooker to have these two players taking part alongside the world’s greats regularly.

These feats cannot be ignored by anyone. At present the system of the allocation of government funds to sports associations is the responsibility of the Kunsill Malti ghall-Isport (KMS). The government hands the money to it on an annual basis and the KMS duly gives the annual grant to the Malta Olympic Committee. The bulk obviously goes to those federations who fall under the ‘Olympic’ category. The rest goes to the others who are not yet part of the Olympic fold. The global amount passed on to the MOC might sound big, but it is definitely not enough to be considered as a serious investment in Maltese sport.

One is tempted to ask: What is needed to alleviate the plight of these small associations who manage to give Malta a good name in their sporting field, but do not fall under the Olympic category?

The answer is simple. The government should increase its grant for sport every year, even if by a few thousands, until it reaches an appreciable amount. It is there we have to start, despite the limitations of Maltese sportsmen and sportswomen.

Unless the government and those responsible for sport on these islands, get together and discuss the needs of sport and how important it is to invest heavily on our youths in this sector, then the same problems will arise year in year out and our youngsters will never have the opportunity to taste real success.