A parliamentary committee has agreed on a resolution which will see land in Marsa transferred to the Malta Rugby Football Union and other separate resolutions which will see pockets of land be granted to a number of football clubs.

The National Audit Office Accounts Committee in Parliament met on Friday morning to discuss several resolutions involving land transfers to various sports organisations.

Chief amongst them was a long-awaited land transfer to the Malta Rugby Football Union (MRFU).

The government, through Education Minister Clifton Grima, tabled a motion proposing the transfer of four grass pitches together with a clubhouse and dressing room facilities in Marsa to the MRFU – which is the local governing body of rugby union.

The rugby community has long been promised land of its own but it had yet to materialise.

The transfer was subject of animated discussion during the parliamentary committee with the main focus being on a petition filed by the Malta Baseball & Softball Association (MBSA), which currently uses one of the four pitches subject to the land transfer.

The MBSA argued that transferring the land would end the baseball and softball community in Malta, but Grima assured that this would not happen and said that the MRFU had reached an agreement with Sport Malta to guarantee that the current usage of the pitch by the MBSA will not change.

The MRFU in fact were also being bound to allow the MBSA unlimited usage of a batting cage, the usage of which was previously limited to a set number of hours per week.

Grima also said that the government is in discussion with other sports organisations who have excess land for an alternative site for baseball and softball, and noted that “the good will seems to be there” for a solution to be found.

PN MP David Agius argued that the agreement between Sport Malta and the MRFU guaranteeing the time slots to the MBSA should be inserted into the land transfer agreement and, after significant back and forth, the land transfer agreement was amended to reflect that which protected the MBSA’s timeslots.

With the amendment, the land transfer agreement was unanimously approved.

There were unanimous approvals for other separate properties to be transferred to Marsaxlokk FC, Msida St Joseph FC, Qala Saints FC, and Marsa FC respectively as well.

A decision on the transfer of property to Burmarrad FC was postponed after it emerged that the St Paul’s Bay local council had constructed a playground between the club’s dressing rooms and the pitch despite having no title on the land.

Burmarrad FC has said that it is happy to retain the playground and manage it, and the committee was willing to approve the land transfer however it wanted to ascertain the exact status of the land that the playground is built on first.

In all of these cases, this is only the first step of the land transfer process: the motion will now be voted – and likely approved unanimously – by Parliament during a plenary session, after which a contract will be drafted and signed between the government and parties concerned.

In all cases the government has said it followed standard procedure for land transfers to sports organisations: the transfer is on the basis of a 45-year temporary emphyteusis.  The market value in terms of annual rent was worked out by a Sport Malta architect, and Sport Malta then covers 95% of that rent.

This means that sports organisations effectively only pay 5% of the market value of the property in annual rent.