Among my close friends my support for Juventus Football Club is well known. But the other day one of them asked me why I never wrote about one of our own Maltese teams; the answer is simple: I know absolutely nothing about any of them, so it would be quite wrong of me to either praise or slag them off. What I do know is that when I was a very young man I worked for a company that employed Gejtu. He was a driver for the company who also moonlighted as a bookie. What Gejtu didn't know about local footie wasn't worth the time of day. He was a veritable Wikileaks on the local game... warts and all.

I also know that on a Friday, before the weekends fixtures, knowing that none of us was ever likely to bet on local football, he would let us know the results. Yes that's right... I did type before. He would also suggest that he knew the scores as well for most of the games to be played. With a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, one of his eyes screwed tight shut to avoid the smoke, he would hold court in the kitchenette, where we strayed for our breaks. In his rasping dialect he would imply that say... Floriana were definitely going to win the league: "They already bought it back in September. So they can afford to lose to bottom club Zurrieq by two goals... so that one should finish three - one." And he was usually spot on.

He once told me that not all the players of a side bribed to lose were "in the bag", only their best players... about four in number. Now I have no idea whether he was telling the truth, but I do know that he was uncannily accurate with his predictions.

Back in the 1980s I got to know an English guy who had been signed by one of our Premier League clubs on a season-long contract. He told me he had been on the books of an English Premier League club and, I understand, he was a pretty useful midfielder. He told me he wasn't enjoying his football here because it was, in his words: "All fixed." 

He told me that when he moved to Malta originally he had no idea that the game here was so compromised. He said that he began to have his suspicions when, during a game, he would have an opening to score, but his teammates would studiously avoid passing the ball to him, so the chance would go begging. He, not surprisingly, also said he had no intention of renewing his contract and staying here for more than the length of his one year contract. And indeed he returned to the UK and joined a non-league side, before moving up to a second division (now championship) club a season or two later. He may not have reached the very top rung of his profession, but I'll bet he is... or was a hell of a lot better off than he would have been had he stayed to ply his skills here.

So no, I am not a devotee of local footie. Although I'm told it has been cleaned up considerably since the bad old days when the likes of our driver/bookie Gejtu thrived on the cooperation (at a price) of some corrupt local footballers. I've just realised, this whole article has been about corruption... how topical of me.