Foreign professional sports players contracted to represent Malta in the Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) were given Maltese citizenship by merit despite a requirement for eight months’ residency, raising questions on how the passports were issued.

Legal Notice 335 of 2017 regulates how the government can award ‘citizenship for exceptional services’, also known as citizenship by merit.

Applicants must “provide proof of having resided in Malta for at least eight months before the date of application”.

An analysis by The Shift of the contracted players’ international media coverage and personal social media profiles has identified several athletes who although based abroad up until just weeks before the games, nevertheless represented Malta.

Running from 28 May to 3 June, the 2023 small nations games were hosted by Malta this year. They involved 10 disciplines with nine nations and around a thousand athletes.

SportMalta, falling under Sports and Education Minister Clifton Grima’s remit and CEO  Mark Cutajar, has taken on the organisation of the games along with the Malta Olympic Committee, presided over by Julian Pace Bonello.

A prolonged controversy

The debate about the practice was first sparked following online comments by Maltese table tennis player Andrew Gambina, former Malta Table Tennis Academy vice president David Pace and Maltese-Slovakian table tennis player Viktoria Lucenkova.

In a Facebook post on 26 May, Gambina said “The foreigners representing Malta, who have no connection to the island, will be showing up for the games, pocketing a vast sum of money, and leaving thereafter, contributing 0% to Malta and the development of Maltese table tennis.”

Times of Malta subsidiary SportsDesk uploaded, then subsequently removed, an interview with Gambina. Questions sent to SportsDesk by The Shift asking why the interview was removed remained unanswered.

Reacting to SportsDesk’s removal of Gambina’s interview and their subsequent interview with Malta table tennis veteran Viktoria Lucenkova, Pace said in a 29 May Facebook post that of nine table tennis players representing Malta in the games, “only three are native homegrown players”.

In response, Lucenkova said that she has been living in Malta for at least 12 years, rejecting Pace’s assertion that Malta is not her home soil.

International players contracted specifically for the games

The Shift’s analysis of this year’s Team Malta players indicates that while many of the foreign-born players, such as Lucenkova, have lived here or represented Malta for years, at least six have been brought in specifically for the games with no prior connection to Malta.

A TVM Sport article from 15 May, confirmed that athletes were given merit-based citizenship in order to be able to represent Malta during the games, noting that German table tennis player Felix Wetzel “is coming to Malta for a gold medal and much more”.

It claimed that Wetzel had promised the Malta Olympic Committee that he would also represent Malta in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The article further noted that table tennis players Dmitrj Prokopcov, Camelia Iacob and Renata Štrbíková had also been given citizenship by merit, claiming that sources close to the Malta Table Tennis Academy said that “with these four athletes Malta at least has a good chance of winning two gold medals in the singles”.

Research by The Shift has confirmed that Prokopcov has played under the Czech flag until May 2023 and Štrbíková was signed on as the new head coach of the Czech women’s team in January 2023, raising questions on how they could have been fulfilling their eight-month residency in the meantime.

According to ex-MTTA vice president Pace, the MTTA has lacked a fully formed board since 2 September, when “six of nine delegates resigned calling for an election which as of [29 May] is being postponed and postponed by the MOC”.

Apart from the four table tennis players mentioned in the TVM Sport article, The Shift’s analysis identified other athletes who will be representing Malta under similar conditions.

US basketball player Amber Melgoza, who led Malta’s scoring in women’s basketball throughout the GSSE, played for the French team Charnay Basket Bourgogne Sud up until 2022.

US basketball player Eric Washington, was first introduced as a player for Malta on 27 May in a Facebook post by the Malta Basketball Association. Washington similarly raises questions as to how he could have fulfilled the eight-month residency requirement given he is still listed as an active player for German team MLP Academics Heidelberg.

Questions sent by The Shift to the Malta Olympic Committee, Identity Malta, Aġenzija Komunità Malta and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri about how and the who Maltese citizenship by merit was awarded in connection to the games remain unanswered.

In a 4 June article by The Times of Malta, the Maltese Olympic Committee said that all rules were being followed with SportMalta’s Cutajar insisting that athletes such as tennis player Matija Pecotic has lived in Malta for the past 30 years, despite the athlete holding a full-time job with a real estate company in Florida, USA.

SportMalta has distanced itself from the selection of athletes to represent Team Malta, with an article by LovinMalta reporting that a spokesperson from the Sports Ministry said “The government does not interfere in the selection of athletes”.

Throughout May, The Shift has reported on an incomplete €16 million pool in Victoria, Gozo, a €3 million tennis complex in Pembroke which is still in its first phase of construction, a €9 million indoor squash and weightlifting complex in Marsa still having its foundations laid, and an unfinished €14 million indoor pool at the Cottonera sports complex.