Neptunes president, Matthew Bonello, criticised the Aquatic Sports Association’s handling of the controversial motion proposed by San Ġiljan ASC, and supported by a number of top water polo clubs, which was approved earlier this month, denying Malta international Ivan Nagaev from playing as a Maltese player in ASA competitions.
This week’s SportsDesk podcast episode analysed the implications of the new regulation on homegrown players that was approved during last weekend’s ASA Council meeting with Neptunes president Bonello and Dr Sihon Gauci Gonzalez.
San Ġiljan proposed that every club should have only one non-homegrown player in the water.
However, in their motion, San Ġiljan contended that homegrown players are those who participated in ASA-recognised local junior competitions for a minimum of three full competitive seasons between the ages of 12 and 20.
Added to that, any player who was eligible to participate in senior competitions as a Maltese national up to the end of season 2025, under the statutes and regulations then in force, may continue to be registered and fielded as a home-grown player.
San Ġiljan’s motion was submitted in a bid to deny Russian-born player Ivan Nagaev the opportunity to play for Neptunes as a Maltese player during this season’s competitions.
Late last year, Nagaev was granted a Maltese passport on merit by the authorities, making him eligible to play for the national team at the European Championship finals in Belgrade in January.
Bonello said it was unacceptable that the Aquatic Sports Association of Malta let this motion be discussed during last weekend’s meeting, given that it goes against Maltese law, the constitution, and the regulations of the European Union.
“The ASA Annual General Meeting is the only forum where regulations can be changed and during last November’s meeting, none of these proposals had been put forward,” Bonello said.
“After Nagaev had represented Malta at the European Championships, we knew from behind the scenes that such a proposal was going to be put forward and discussed during the ASA Council meeting, which was held after the Extraordinary General Meeting.
“This was a proposal that should have never been accepted for discussion, as it goes against the country’s legislation, the constitution, and the European Union regulations.
“When you have a citizen who is given Maltese nationality, and you are denying him of his right to compete in his sport as a Maltese, you are clearly abusing his rights.
“This was confirmed by Dr Herman Mula, the legal counsellor of the ASA, who, when he tried to raise this point of the illegitimacy of this motion, was completely shut down.
“This motion was discriminatory because it creates two categories of Maltese players, one of those who played before 2025 and the second of those playing under the new regulations.
“The motion was studied with the sole aim of not letting Ivan Nagaev play in the ASA competitions with homegrown status.
“The ASA had received advice from several bodies, AIMS, the Maltese Olympic Committee, SportMalta of the negative implications of the motion, while we were also informed during the meeting that the Sports Minister and the Shadow Minister for Sport had also intervened to express their opposition.
“And still, the ASA failed to stop this motion from being discussed, and the end result was that this proposal was approved.”
During the discussion, Bonello said that when in 2015 Aurelien Cousin was granted a Maltese passport, he was allowed to play as a homegrown player and in fact played for both San Ġiljan and Exiles as a Maltese player.
Added to that, he mentioned another case that happened over 20 years ago when siblings Nicky and James Falzon, who had dual citizenship but opted to represent Australia, signed for Sliema ASC.
“At the time, I submitted a motion as Neptunes’ secretary where I argued that since they have opted to represent Australia, why should they be given the right to play as Maltese players,” Bonello said.
“I remember that the motion was thrown out as there was an intervention by the Minister of Sport at the time, who said that the proposal was against the Maltese constitution.
“So, how can one say that what was not ruled as illegal 20 years ago can become legal today, about a player who has a Maltese passport and is representing our country?”
Dr Gauci Gonzalez explained the role of the Authority for the Integrity of Sports in this matter and made it clear that her organisation had no right to act as a court to determine whether it’s legal or not, but its mandate was to safeguard good governance and ensure the proposal conforms with the principles of transparency, justice, and legal certainty.
“This is not just about the Ivan Nagaev case, but it’s about protocols that seem not to have been respected, good governance principles in the discussion of democracy in dialogue between the association with the clubs, where there are clear gaps, and there are considerations of ripple effects in other sports.
“We have already heard talk from other discussions of the kind, ‘so if they could do this, we can do this,’ so there is already a repercussion of this motion being approved.”
Dr Gauci Gonzalez said that this motion does not conform to good governance principles as it does not provide legal certainty.
“Legal certainty is very practical, and it guarantees that regulations are certain, stable, and are not changed in the middle of a game,” she said.
“If we are talking when a season has already started, negotiations and an investment done under a set of regulations, and then these rules have changed and have a direct impact on the value of that contract, both for the club and the player, it will undermine the faith of all parties and will increase doubt on the credibility of the competition’s rules.”
