Updated: Andre Schembri blames MFA for Malta’s dismal football results

Former Malta international player Andre Schembri expressed his disappointment at Malta’s latest failure in international football and said the national team’s latest disappointment is the result of a fragmented culture in Maltese football.

On Tuesday, the national team missed out on promotion in the UEFA Nations League after going down to Luxembourg in a promotion play-off.

Emilio De Leo’s side crashed to a 3-0 defeat at the Stade de Luxembourg as the home side completed a comprehensive 5-0 aggregate victory.

The result left Malta as one of only three countries to have yet to win promotion in the UEFA Nations League since the competition’s inception in 2018, the others being Liechtenstein and Andorra.

Our senior national team are now facing the prospect of another campaign in League D, where they take on Andorra and Gibraltar next September.

Schembri has been one of the loudest critics of how Maltese football is progressing.

Ten years ago, in the aftermath of Malta’s 2-0 defeat to England at Wembley Stadium had criticised how the Malta FA top officials are administering Maltese football.

“We need a whole reshuffle… in the youth system, the level of coaching,” Schembri had said.

“I’ve been saying this for years. You keep interviewing us, but there are 10 people from the MFA (Malta Football Association) here. I think you should interview them instead.

“Maltese football is so far behind. And it’s not the players’ fault. It’s the fault of those running Maltese football. If we don’t change, you will be here in 20 years, and we will be in the same situation.”

Ten years on, and there have been very few signs of progress following another unsuccessful UEFA Nations League campaign.

Reacting to Malta’s latest international failure, Schembri said the result hurts, but it was not the real problem, pointing to a fragmented culture as the real reason behind the national team’s lack of progress on the international scene.

“Yesterday’s result hurts, but it’s not the real problem,” Schembri said.

“For years, I have been critical of Maltese football, and at times that’s been labelled as negativity. But it has always come from a place of care. I love my country, and I want to see it progress.

“The truth is, we are operating within a fragmented culture.

“Players are exposed to multiple coaches, different methodologies and competing ideas; clubs, private academies, schools etc.

“Everyone is involved, yet there is no real alignment.”

Schembri said that wholesome changes need to be introduced in how Maltese football is if there is going to be a real change.

“The question is, who is truly responsible for a player’s development?” Schembri said. “Who is tracking their progress? Who provides one clear direction?

“The answer is simple: no one.

“We don’t lack effort. We don’t lack people. What we lack is coherence, alignment, and courage.

“Small changes won’t fix this.

“If we truly want to move forward, we must be brave enough to rethink the system and build a new one, not just adjust the current one. Until then, results will continue to reflect exactly where we are.”

Schembri’s words are food for thought for the Malta Football Association’s top hierarchy, who, despite its comprehensive investment during the past eight years, have failed to make any significant progress.

The MFA have embarked on several initiatives in the last decade to try and shake the system, but yielded scant results.

The MFA technical centre has been put in charge of a host of Italian coaches, from Devis Mangia to Michele Marcolini and now Emilio De Leo.

These coaches have brought to Malta several other fellow compatriots who were put in charge of our youth selections, but so far, we are struggling to reap either consistent positive results or, more importantly, nurture young Maltese talents into established internationals.

The Malta FA response to the lack of talent coming through was not to further increase its investment or revise its technical strategies, but opted to fill the void left in key positions of the senior national team by bringing ‘foreign’ players, who have either Maltese descent or have been playing in our country for several years, and awarded them a passport.

Today, the national team can bank on naturalised foreign players such as Teddy Teuma, Ilyas Chouaref, Irvin Cardona, James Carragher, Jodie Jones, Trent Buhagiar, and Enrico Pepe with a view to lifting the technical level of our senior selection.

While one cannot discuss the ability of the majority of these players, who are of a higher quality than some of our homegrown talent, in the end, they still have failed to lead the national team to the main objective set by MFA president Bjorn Vassallo in recent years – promotion to League C of the UEFA Nations League.

With Emilio De Leo set to remain in charge of the national team, the Italian coach must sit down with the top brass of the Malta FA and the technical centre, and a major analysis of the current strategy must be conducted to see in what ways we can put our football movement on the right track.

Everyone who has the interest of Maltese football at heart deserves much more!