Gżira FC committee deplores mayor comments in stadium row

The Gżira United committee has issued a statement to deplore the comments made by Gżira mayor Conrad Borg Manche in a similar statement issued on Saturday where he made it clear that he had no intention of damaging the Premier League club.

In a statement the club hit out at the Gżira Mayor for the personal attack aime at club secretary Dr Ian Micallef.

“It is good for the mayor to know that Dr Ian Micallef has helped incessantly to ensure that this club is one of the few in Malta that has a professional administration, efficient and organised, to an extent that when he was offered the chance to join other clubs with the incentive of a salary, he remained loyal to Gżira United FC on voluntary basis,” the club said.

“The club remains of the opinion, that after the approval given during an extraordinary general meeting organised by the club under the MFA rules and for which the mayor failed to turn up, the ground project at Manoel Island shoud continue, including the commercialisation of the area as permitted by the regulations of the government.

“This is the way how a club can become financially sustainable in the future and will not depend on ly on sponsors and the investiment that is brought by the president as happened under the charge of Sharlon Pace who managed to attract wit him persons like Edward Zammit Tabona.

“This is the way that a professional committee should look to the future with optimism and ensures he doesn’t leave the club in a crisis once he leaves the club.”

The Gżira FC committee said that the town mayor is not taking into consideration the added expenses that the new facilities will bring with them for the area maintenance.

“It’s important to remind everyone that when the mayor was elected, the financial assistance provided to the club by the Gżira local council was stopped completely and the club had to find the financial means to complete the maintenance work on the school ground, many time depending on the assistance from the club president.

“Obviously having a bigger area will mean more expenses and that would bring with it the need of commercialisation.”

The Premier League club said that if the mayor was present for the extraordinary general meeting he wouldn’t need to ask why we needed the University Ground apart from the Manoel Island stadium.

“In Manoel Island one cannot play competitive sport and therefore while it will be a hub for the Gżira United FC nursery and not suitable for the senior team to move forward and be able to play competitive matches in the ground they train in,” he said.

“The committee didn’t need to attend the Planning Authority meeting and neither the intervention of the mayor as the drawings filed to MIDI concerned the sporting facilities that were discussed and agreed between both parties.”

The Gżira United FC committee said that the Dr Borg Manche was removed from the committee for different reasons mentioned by him and the the club is ready to reveal all the truth but it will be the choice of the town mayor.

“It is also not true that the committee went to meet Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on the commercialisation of Manoel Island but one has to say that the former Prime Minister was in favour with our project at the University of Malta and that we have the facilities at Manoel Island too,” the club said.

President Sharlon Pace denied claims made by Dr Borg Manche that he didn’t want the Manoel Island Ground and that he would resign if they are awarded the stadium. 

“The president never spoke with the mayor on this subject and the only words he told him was that the mayor should take good care of the locality and leave the internal club matters to the committee and members.

“The club committee doesn’t need to meet the mayor on this project,” the statement said.

“This is a project whose contract between the Government and MIDI mentions Gżira United FC and therefore the mayor was not given any right to talk about it.”