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‘Fly High My Dear Son’: Maltese Community ‘Shocked’ At Young Referee And Football Fanatic’s Death

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“We have lost a quiet, reserved and good-hearted member,” Malta’s ultra sport fan club South End Core wrote last night. The group had just found out that Joseph Cilia, a young football fanatic and referee from Ħamrun, had tragically passed away.

“My son has gone to rest in the holy presence of the Lord,” Joseph’s mother Isabella posted on Facebook on Thursday evening. “Fly high my dear son. You have given me so much to be proud of. You will always be in our hearts, and watching us from above.”

A beloved, reserved member of the community, Joseph always had a great love for football.

“Unfortunately, I was never good enough to become a player,”a 24-year-old Joseph jokingly explained in an interview filmed last year by his friend and MFA colleague Kyle Beeston. Joseph was then encouraged by his then-PE teacher to enter the academy, eventually joining the MFA Refeering Department.

“I cannot believe I’m writing this,” Kyle posted last night. “Rest in peace Joseph Cilia.”

“He always used to attend national matches, and he even used to frequently give a helping hand before matches and travel abroad with us so that he could support his country,” South End Core reminisced. “Thank you for working and believing in us.”

RIP Joseph Cilia

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Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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