For many years, government investment in sport was little and far between. But over the last two decades or so there has been a push in this direction, and this has contributed to improve existing facilities and build new ones to enable local athletes to have the means to obtain better results than they used to.

The holding of the Games for the Small States of Europe twice within a decade – in 1993 and 2003 – have helped in no small way to upgrade sport venues in both Malta and Gozo.

The Maltese Olympic Committee’s own investment in athletes has also led to a general improvement in results obtained, especially in the international field.

But there is still a long way to go.

Of course, it is easy to say that Malta will never be able to catch up with the bigger countries in terms of sport results. Yet, there is much potential in what we could achieve, and with further adjustments and more investment our results could get better.

The MOC’s director of sport Pippo Psaila made some interesting suggestions in this regard when he addressed a business breakfast organised by The Malta Business Weekly at Le Meridien Phoenicia Hotel last week.

He suggested that fiscal incentives and tax benefits be introduced to attract more private commercial entities to allot an amount of money from their profits to sport. For every lira a company puts up, the government should give part of it in tax credit or one per cent of corporate tax could be apportioned by the company for sport. Giving an example, if one were to consider the profits made in the first half of 2006, one per cent would amount to Lm2.7 million. He also proposed that sport entities should be exempt from VAT.

These, he said, would enable the government to reduce its current expenditure on sport and help it become more self-sufficient. Secondly, they would encourage more companies to invest in sport through sponsorships and, in turn, benefit from the exposure they get from such an investment.

In a nutshell, what Mr Psaila suggested is that we start gradually moving away from the current position that sees the government as the main “sponsor” of sport in Malta through its heavy investment in facilities. Instead, private enterprises should be given more incentives to support local sport.

What Mr Psaila said makes a lot of sense because, whichever way you look at his suggestions, it is a win-win-win situation.

For one thing, enterprises which decide to invest in sport will be paying less tax on their profits and getting a lot in return through their sponsorships in terms of exposure and advertising.

Secondly, although the government will be receiving less income because less tax would start to be paid, this will be made up for by the fact that the government would then need to invest less money in sport.

Thirdly, associations and athletes would still receive the money they need – hopefully more than they are doing today – to invest in their facilities and training. The difference would be that they would not need to turn to the government every time they need something, but instead will be getting their money from other sources. It will help us move away from the idea that the government should be the sole provider of everything we need.

On a wider scale, Malta stands to benefit too if our athletes obtain positive results in international competitions. Just to give one small example, each time there is an international snooker competition Malta gets exposure because Tony Drago made a name for himself and for the country, and although he is no longer one of the top players, his previous feats are still mentioned regularly by commentators.

Just imagine what benefits Malta can obtain if one, just one, of our athletes wins an Olympic gold medal, something that the MOC is working hard to achieve, possibly as early as the coming Olympic Games in Beijing. But, to do that, the MOC needs to get all the support it can get.