PARADIGM SHIFT - Norman Darmanin Demajo

While addressing those present at the 2012 MFA Annual General Meeting, MFA President Norman Darmanin Demajo spoke about the need of a "Paradigm Shift" in the way our football is run.  Mr. Darmanin Demajo started off his speech by extracting a number of quotations from an article written in a 1953 Football Review, by the then MFA President Dr. J. Frendo Azzopardi. Mr.Darmanin Demajo expressed that, upon reading what was written by the man at the helm of football some 60 years ago, he was taken aback on how many of these observations still apply. While pointing our that a number of clubs took heed of his advise of last year for them to come out of their comfort zone, he notes with satisfaction that some clubs have already improved on their administrative performance. The MFA President stated that he strongly believed that the way forward  should be mostly based on Financial Fair Play, Responsibility and Integrity, categorised between the Football Players, Football Coaches, the Clubs' Administration and the Authorities. With regards to the players, Mr. Darmanin Demajo said that their first responsibility is to see that they register themselves according to the regulations and that ALL their actual incomes are included in their contractual terms. Secondly, all football players should be more than responsible for their own performance integrity. For him it is unthinkable for a football player to enter the field of play focusing on how to attain a pre-determined result rather than his own best possible performance. Match fixing, he said, is today's football cancer, and growing. Here Mr. Darmanin Demajo pointed out that the final decision by the UEFA Control and Disciplnary Body on the Norway vs Malta case is scheduled for the 17th August 2012. The MFA President then spoke about Football Coaches' Integrity and made an open invitation to all football coaches to come to the MFA Technical Center and continue to develop their knowledge on the game. Mr. Darmanin Demajo dedicated the next part of his speech to the responsibilities and integrity of Clubs' Administration. He dwelt on Financial Fair Play and the importance for clubs to balance their books, rather than exceed any capabilities in the interest of winning trophies whic most of the time result in hefty dues. Clubs, he said, need to think and act professionally and plan long term. Safeguard their own promising youths rather than squandering their money elsewhere. Perhaps it is also time for all clubs to start thinking of  a different and more professional ownership structure or indeed transforming themselves into Liability Companies. His final remarks towards this 'Paradigm Shift' were aimed at local authorities such as MEPA and the Government itself.  He appealed for local authorities to start looking at requests from the association itself and /or from football clubs as coming from the football economic and commercial activithy they generate.  "This however very much depended on us players in the game, whether being football players, coaches or club administrators, by giving ourselves credit for our own ever increasing  football economic activity" was the final message by Mr. Norman Darmanin Demajo.