by Bernard Vassallo
The 61st edition of the SportMalta Awards Għażliet Sportivi Nazzjonali, based on the sport outcomes of 2020, will take place tomorrow evening, Saturday 13th March 2021. This year’s edition, due to the present circumstances of COVID-19, will be a restricted one and different from the recent editions.
Basketball will be represented by the Secretary General, Joseph Muscat, who was nominated and subsequently selected as one of the three finalists in the ‘Sports Official of the Year’ category.
Joseph Muscat:
Secretary General of the MBA for the last 10 years.
During 2020, Muscat was highly instrumental in completing the structural project and total renovation of the basketball pavilion in Ta Qali. Apart from designing the facility himself, Muscat was continuously directing and supervising the extensive works carried out to lead to an international level pavilion
At the same time, during the spread of the pandemic, Muscat made arrangements to arrive to technological investment that made it possible for the live steaming on the MBA social media of the matches played in Ta ‘Qali.
Apart from the normal role of secretary general, Muscat also directs all participation of national teams.
On the European scene, Muscat has been a member of the FIBA Europe Commission for Small Countries for 8 years.
We augur the best of luck to Joseph Muscat and hope to see him being selected by the sport journalists as the ‘Sports Official of the Year’ and become the sixth basketball related person to win this Award after Louis Borg (1974), Louis Micallef (1979), John Tabone (1991), Bernard Vassallo (2006) and Paul Sultana (2017)
Below are all the ‘basketball’ winners in the history of the Għażliet Sportivi Nazzjonali
Sportswoman of the Year
1980 Anna Felice
1981 Anna Calleja
2009 Rebecca Brincat
Sport Official of the Year
1974 Louis Borg
1979 Louis Micallef
1987 Louis Borg
1991 John Tabone
2006 Bernard Vassallo
2017 Paul Sultana
Team of the Year
2003 Women National Team
2009 Women National Team
2018 Basketball – Tim Nazzjonali Irġiel
Coach of the Year
2017 Angela Adamoli
Sport Event of the Year
2008 M.B.A. FIBA Conference
2015 M.B.A. FIBA European Conference