The Malta Sports Journalists Association (MSJA) congratulates Julian Pace Bonello for his successful re-election as President of the Maltese Olympic Committee (MOC).

The MSJA sends also its congratulations to Kevin Azzopardi for being elected as the new General Secretary of the MOC.

Congratulations are being relayed also to the elected Executive Directors, Paul Sultana as the new Vice-President, David Azzopardi confirmed Treasurer, Charlene Attard new Director of Sport, Maria Vella Galea, Nigel McCarthy, Dr Lucienne Attard, and Johanna Grech.

The Malta Sports Journalists Association urges the newly elected Executive Team of the Maltese Olympic Committee to continue building on the work that has already been carried out in the past years, and also strive in order to gain more recognition from all entities in Malta.

A special thanks goes to Joe Cassar, who served as the General Secretary of the MOC for the past 28 years, for his service, hard work and dedication to the development of sport in Malta.

Finally, the Malta Sports Journalists Association notes that it is disappointed about the fact that media was not given due access to follow and report the outcome of the General Assembly except for 2 minutes specifically for filming before the actual start of the meeting. The sports media deserves better ! Although there is no specific reference for media access during the General Assembly of the Malta Olympic Committee in the MOC’s statute, there should have been a ‘suspension of the rules’ so that media would have been able to follow and record in detail the administrative, financial report and the counting of the votes itself like it was the case were an exception was made to grant access to Mr Kevin Azzopardi and Mr McCarthy who were allowed to follow the proceedings.

The MSJA is confident that this situation will be improved shortly, with added cooperation between these two entities with the aim to strengthen the sports administrative sector in a democratic and transparent way.