After some encouraging results lately, the National team had for a while captivated the attention of all local football fans. The stadium was experiencing nearly full capacity crowds, continuous support rarely witnessed here in Malta and a new hope that these results would not merely be a flash in the pan.
With hindsight, after the recent Portugal and Albanian encounters, it seems that we are back to square one. Many may ask, but why? What are we doing wrong?
In my humble opinion, the technical staff of the National team is doing a very good job. My fear is that they cannot do more. The problem is complex and the reasons are many.
The main reason is simply lack of top quality football. Our players need to be exposed to a higher level of football. The fact that the nucleus of our players ply their trade here in Malta is depriving them of the quality match practise they need to maintain the high level of football one needs to face teams of high calibre. Some may say that we need to send our players abroad and to a certain extent, I tend to agree, but then again, it seems that we are caught up in a catch 22 situation, where our players are not attracting the attention of higher level teams for a reason….. Our league is simply not good enough.
I for one would rather see more investment ploughed into our own domestic competition, so that our own level of football can be improved. Only then can our players aspire to play abroad. Not all players have the gift of being “special”. Some are good enough to play abroad, but they have to compete with thousands of equally good players, tough training regimes and they have to learn to live the serious, disciplined life of a football player. If we cannot instil this mentality here at home, our local talent cannot flourish abroad as they will be competing on a different playing field, one of amateur level versus one of a totally professional mentality.
We are slowly seeing investment in infrastructure at club level, but the dividends of such investment will not be reaped overnight. It will take time and plenty of it! Infrastructure is not enough. Our clubs cannot remain being run and administered on an amateur and voluntary basis. This too must change. Minimum criteria, compatible with Uefa licensing criteria must be established and adhered to. For all of this to take place, clubs must be given the opportunity to generate funds, funds that can be re-invested in part, together with the much needed cash flow to finance payrolls that ensure regular payment to players and staff without the need for bankrolling from individuals who will simply become an extinct species in the near future die to the ever increasing costs of running a club. If clubs cannot generate income on a regular basis, our level will simply remain as it is now… A glance of our clubs’ results at Uefa level highlight the sorry state that we are in now. Modest clubs from modest countries are overtaking us at break-neck speed. This is not merely coincidental. These clubs have a solid infrastructure, competing on a home and away basis, week in week out. They are in a sense left to their own devices, but they are surviving. Locally, our teams have a league based on a central system where everything is regulated by the association. There is little room for negotiating local TV rights, advertising space in pitch-side perimeters, home team gate receipts, all of which are ways of generating much needed income. This will not happen overnight, but with the prevailing mentality, it will never happen at all!
That is why that investment must be made at grass roots level, right up to the top league level. Without proper investment, nothing can change, unless of course that we have a group of say 30 players playing abroad in top level leagues, something I fear is still a distant dream for the reasons I have mentioned above. Everything is relative and football is no exception.
John Borg
