The Maltese Olympic Committee yesterday officially signed the agreement awarding the Games of the Small States of Europe, Monaco 2007 the broadcasting rights to the four major TV stations in Malta namely the Public Broadcasting Services, NET TV, One Productions and Education22.

The agreement includes possible live coverage of the Opening and Closing ceremonies, dedicated pre-games programmes informing the general public about the disciplines which will be represented by the Maltese team and who the athletes will be. Daily updates will also be featured not only in the Sports News but with a dedicated programme which will chronicle the day’s events, results and news regarding the Malta Team.

MOC President, Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco thanked the media for bringing the Games to the people. “We appreciate your help which enables us to reach higher. In fact we hope to get the best results in Monaco, come next June,” he added.

Pippo Psaila, MOC Director of Sport, said that an unprecedented amount of TV coverage amounting to over 36 hours on these Games (nine hours per station) will be made available to the TV viewers and this excludes the possible live coverage of the Opening/Closing Ceremonies.

He added: “Never in the Games history has a sporting event had all four of Malta’s leading stations provide such a comprehensive service to viewers. The value of this agreement exceeds over Lm80,000. And the four stations are forking several thousands of Maltese liri to be able to make the transmissions.

Also as a result of this agreement MOC sponsors and business concerns supporting the Malta Team and Maltese Olympic Committee for these Games will benefit countless opportunities.

The Games of the Small States of Europe are International Games under the auspices of the Olympic Movement which shows our competitiveness and improvement in sport against countries such as Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.

After introducing the Games which will take place in Monaco from 4-9 June and afterwards giving details of sports venues, the MOC general secretary Joseph Cassar went on to say that these Games will surely be anther success for the Malta Team.

Present for the signing of the agreement were Ms. Slyvana Cristina, Head of News - PBS, Mr. Simon Lumsden, Head of Programmes – PBS, Mr. Charlo Bonnici, Education22; Mr. Mark Cutajar, Head of Sports – One Productions.

The GSSE Monaco 2007 will involve the following disciplines: Athletics, Basketball (Men’s), Bowls, Gymnastics, Judo, Sailing, Swimming, Tennis, Table-Tennis, Target Shooting, Volley ball including Beach Volley. Member states competing at these games are Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino and Malta.

MOC-CONI sign 2007 protocol for sport exchanges

The Maltese Olympic Committee and CONI, its Italian counterpart, yesterday signed a new protocol for 2007, to the tune of Lm40,000, with the aim of enhancing sports contacts between the two committees as well as to strengthen friendship and cooperation between athletes of the two organisations.

Under the programme, athletics, bowls, judo, canoeing, Artistic gymnastics, sailing, shooting (trap, double trap and skeet), swimming, table-tennis and tennis will all be benefiting in one way or another with athletes and coaches from each of these disciplines being sent to Italy for training camps.

Also, Italian coaches will be visiting Malta to train basketball players (three months), gymnastics, shooting, tennis and volleyball.

The agreement was signed by Dott. Raffaele Pagnozzi on behalf of CONI and Joseph Cassar on behalf of MOC. Dott Bruno Biferari who is Head of the Olympic Programme and Technical Cooperation Department of CONI was here representing CONI on the occasion of the signing of this protocol.

Also yesterday, Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco revealed that the MOC had also received a sort of donation of 10,000 Canadian dollars from the Canadian Olympic Committee who were here to discuss their bid for Halifax to stage the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The MOC president once again reiterated that the contingent for Monaco has not yet been selected. “There will be more or less 60 athletes, but we want to assure everyone that all athletes obtaining the Minimum Qualifying Standards will be forming part of that contingent, even if the number goes above 60,” he said.