Joseph Muscat Really Wants Malta To Start Winning At Sports
Joseph Muscat is on a mission: to make the Maltese nation win at sports.
In an TVMSports interview which will be broadcasted on TVM2 later this evening, Joseph Muscat spoke about the national sports budget, the national sports school, the agreement which Valletta Football Club is making with Arab investors, and the new shooting ranges.
Photo taken from a video uploaded by TVM
Muscat said that the government was ready to consider doubling the national sports budget only when the sports federations and associations set specific targets
He also referred to the project of Valletta FC, which has interested investors from the United Arab Emirates who are close to signing a €150 million deal for a stadium and sporting complex.
The government is even considering opening a sixth form at the national sports school so that the students who spend five years studying there can also continue practicing sports. He also mentioned that the Maltese Shooting Federation has agreed that the shooting range at Ta’ Kandja will be managed by the government.
Malta’s national sports school
Malta will be hosting the Small Nations Games in five years’ time, and the government has a plan to not just invest in building new facilities, but to also identify the types of training and programmes for young athletes to excel
Muscat has made similar comments to these before.
Last April, he said he was “sick of hearing phrases like ‘We played well but we lost again’ or the famous ‘We put in a brave performance’. The time has come to truly make sports part of Maltese culture.”
Just last month, Muscat commented that “The government plans to launch a national sports strategy to address these issues and we have already started discussions with sports federations and the Malta Olympic Committee in this regard.”
This, however, might be easier said than done.
This year’s inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League didn’t really go well for Malta’s national team, which saw them returning home dead last and with only three points after disappointing performances against Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan and Kosovo. The national football team’s next appointments are at the UEFA Euro Qualifiers in March 2019. The first match is against the Faroe Islands… but the second sees us facing footballing giants Spain.
Muscat says that the government will be investing mostly in football since it is the most invested by schools and takes the most from the national budget out of all of the sports.