There were more celebrations yesterday early in the afternoon among the local contingent, especially the Squash fraternity when it was known that Liechtenstein’s protest against the result of their match against Malta on Thursday was not upheld.

Liz Said, president of Malta Squash, said that the committee had ruled in Malta’s favour as there had been no wrongdoing from Malta’s part.

Liechtenstein based their protest over the inclusion of the injured Joe Desira in the Malta team.

They contended that he should never have been included and it seems as if they accused the Maltese of making use of the player’s services when they knew he would not last the match.

In their counter protest the Malta side contended they had done nothing which went against the rules. On Thursday, Ivan Balzan had said that Malta had every right to withdraw the injured Desira from the match.

The decision not to uphold the Liechtenstein protest proved Balzan right.

The dispute between the two countries over this protest deepened yesterday when it was known that an article in the newspaper Liechtenseiner Vaterland (see photo), accused the Maltese of cheating.

The writer, Van Hans Peter Putzi, said it was a black day for Maltese sport.

He claimed that the Maltese had made use of player Desira when it was known beforehand that he had been injured. He said Desira should not have played, but the Maltese included him because his absence would have weakened their top spots in the team.

He also said he thought Malta played it unfairly, but it appears that he was only assuming that Desira was injured as he never made a mention of the fact that the Maltese player had played a full match against Andorra in the morning and won that encounter convincingly 3-0.

One simply wonders how an injured player could win a match so comfortably as Desira did in that morning match on Thursday.

I understand Liechtenstein’s disappointment despite their 3-2 win against Malta. That result meant they were relegated to the third place – the bronze medal – as Luxembourg held on to the silver.

Meanwhile, it was also known that the Maltese Olympic Committee was preparing a reply to the newspaper, the contents of which were not yet known yesterday evening.