Watch: Bjorn Vassallo re-elected as president of the Malta Football Association

Bjorn Vassallo has successfully been re-elected as president of the Malta Football Association after beating his rival Robert Micallef in the presidential elections held during the MFA General Assembly at the Hotel Excelsior on Friday.

For Vassallo, this will be his second term in office after he succeeded Norman Darmanin Demajo in 2020 after beating his then-rival Chris Bonett in the same elections.

Delegates from the member clubs and association gave an overwhelming vote of confidence to Vassallo as he secured a pronounced victory after collecting 62 votes against Micallef’s 6.

Victory in Friday’s elections provides Vassallo with the opportunity to continue to implement his strategic plan that was launched four years ago but was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the association to put several projects on the shelf due to financial problems and other constraints.

In his first comments after the result, Vassallo thanked the club members and delegates for the strong support shown and vowed to double his efforts to make sure Maltese football continues to reach new heights.

“This has been a huge vote of confidence from the club members and delegates which fills me with a lot of pride but at the same time increases the responsibility on my shoulders,” Vassallo said.

“The association always belonged to the football clubs and will continue to be of the member clubs. The members today spoke and said that they wanted more stability and I am committed to continue moving forward and together with the other officials that are going to be elected today we work hard to take Maltese football on a more solid foundation.”

Asked what are his main challenges at the start of his second term in office Vassallo said:

“During the past four years, we had a lot of challenges and I hope we don’t experience challenges that are not in our control.

“We have four years ahead of us to implement our strategic plan and we will work hard to ensure Maltese football will make more strides forward. Maltese football has grown stronger and stronger in recent years, and is a much bigger family..

“It’s important that we look at the positive aspects of the sport as football is beneficial for our country and our focus will be to try and reach higher objectives than in the past.”

Following the presidential elections, the General Assembly voted for the first-ever female vice-president in the association, with Dana Farrugia, Christabelle Chetcuti and Maria Azzopardi vying for the seat.

In the end, it was Maria Azzopardi who won the ballot when she managed to collect 34 votes to finish ahead of Chetcuti, with 22 votes, with Farrugia, a member of the MFA Executive Committee managing just 13 votes.

“I would like to thank the members for their support and I am committed to working with the association’s top brass for the good of Maltese football and its members.”

In the election for the other two vice-president seats, two elections were needed after a stalemate of votes between two candidates

In fact, Matthew Paris was elected with an overwhelming majority of 59 votes but Peter Fenech and Adrian Casha finished level on 19, four clear of Samuel Azzopardi while Miceli received five votes.

In the second election, it was Casha who prevailed when he collected 36 votes against Fenech’s 30.

Yesterday’s General Assembly marked the end of Ludovico Micallef’s spell as MFA vice-president.

Micallef has been serving as vice-president for the past 26 years during which he was at the heart of several infrastructure projects of the association as well as taking an influential role in the association’s grassroots.

President Bjorn Vassallo heaped praise on Ludovico Micallef’s work throughout the past years both in club administration as well as the local governing body of football.

Vassallo announced that the association had decided to nominate Micallef to be installed as an honorary member of the governing body and this motion was unanimously approved by the delegates present.