Reading your report on the press conference organised by the Sportswriters’ Association together with the Malta Sports Council (TMID, 5 January), I was totally dismayed to notice that all the hard work performed by previous Sportswriters’ Association committees went down the drain because the latter has now relinquished its hard-fought rights to organise these awards on an exclusive basis.

It will be recalled that in yesteryears these awards were organised by our association in conjunction with the Malta Olympic Committee. During those years our association struggled to make everyone understand that sports journalists should organise these awards on their own as we are the right people to judge sportspeople’s performance during each year.

After a lot of persuasion, we managed to start this adventure on our own. We argued that the MOC representatives and the public voted out of sympathy and not because of the athletes’ and officials’ performance.

For many years this system worked well, thanks also to the Sportswriters’ Association’s sub-committee which followed individual and collective performances throughout a particular year. All this information used to be posted to all our members so that it served as a guideline when they were asked to cast their vote.

All this has now been lost again as the association, together with the Malta Sports Council, decided to re-introduce voting from the public and sports organisations’ representatives attending the final night.

I am not against any type of awards (in fact the MOC is nowadays organising a similar awards’ night in early December), but certainly not this kind. As it is going to be held now, sports journalists are a minority, having only 40 per cent of the stakes at their disposal because, with the public having 20 per cent and the sport organisations the remaining 40 per cent of the voting power, we are now a minority.

I still insist that the Sportswriters’ Association should have kept its exclusivity, as is done in other countries. If other entities wish to have their own awards, then let them do it, but the Sportswriters’ Association should stick to its exclusive awards.

HENRY CALLEJA

Honorary Life President

Sportswriters’ Association