Senglea Athletic win appeal over their Challenge League omission

Club urges MFA to ratify its decision ahead of league draws on July 18

Senglea Athletic issued a statement to express their satisfaction after the Malta FA Appeals Board accepted their argumentation on their complaint against the decision taken by local governing body of football to reinstate Vittoriosa Stars to next season’s Challenge League.

The Malta FA Executive Board announced last month, that following Pembroke Athleta’s decision to forfeit their place in next season’s Premier League, Santa Lucia FC will be reinstated in the Maltese top flight.

This decision opened another berth in the Challenge League with Vittoriosa Stars and Senglea Athletic.

Vittoriosa Stars were the last team to be relegated from Group A of the Challenge League after finishing ninth and Senglea Athletic too were the last team to be relegated from Group B as they finished ninth.

In a statement on Wednesday, Senglea Athletic said that the Appeals Board had accepted their case and now expect the Malta FA Executive Board to ratify their decision so that the club could prepare themselves for next season’s Challenge League.

“Senglea Athletic FC welcomes with satisfaction the decision taken by the Appeals Board taken late last night where it accepted the arguments forwarded by the lawyer Adrian Delia who led the case in the name of club president Neil Carter and secretary Ryan Pellicano,” the club said in the statement.

“In fact, the Appeals Board acted according to the terms of reference that were assigned to it and informed the Executive Board of the MFA so that it reconsiders the interpretation and the application of Article 5 because the terminology used refers without a doubt to divisions and not sections.

“In the light of the successful appeal of Senglea Athletic, who received full reimbursement of their deposit, the club committee appeals to the MFA Executive Board so that immediately it will ratify this decision so that we can prepare a competitive team for the Challenge League.

“Senglea Athletic would like to make it clear that through this appeal they had never the intention to obstruct the plans of their neighbours Vittoriosa Stars. We believe that the two teams should be in the urn for the draws of the Challenge League that will be held on Monday, July 18.”