Valletta awarded win over Sliema Wanderers as protest upheld by Malta FA

Valletta FC’s complaint against the result of their Premier League match against Sliema Wanderers last weekend was upheld by the Malta FA Protest Board on Friday.

The Wanderers had won the match 2-1 at the National Stadium but earlier this week, Valletta FC filed a protest at the Malta FA offices against the result of the match as they contended that Sliema’s Hassan Warsana was ineligible to play in the match.

Valletta contended that the Djibouti player was ineligible to play in the match as he was supposed to be serving a mandatory 14-day quarantine on the day of the match after he was part of the team that was beaten by Algeria in a World Cup qualifier played in Egypt, which is ranked as a dark red-listed country.

The Malta FA Protest Board accepted Valletta’s arguments and awarded the Citizens the three points of the match.

“In its sitting of yesterday, the Protests Board of the Malta Football Association upheld the protest filed by Valletta FC in relation to the match against Sliema Wanderers, played on the 20th November, 2021 at the National Stadium which had ended 2-1 in favour of Sliema Wanderers,” the MFA said in a statement.

“The protest was based on the fact that Warsama Hassan (Sliema W) was deemed to have played while under the obligation to self-isolate by law following his appearance in the World Cup qualifier between his home country of Djibouti and Algeria, which took place in Egypt, currently a dark red-listed country..

“Valletta will be awarded the three points for the fixture in question.”

The MFA ruling means that Valletta have now moved up to second in the Premier League standings on 16 points, five adrift of leaders Hibernians.

On the other hand, Sliema remain bottom of the standings with four points and still without a win after their opening nine matches.