Revealed: MTA sponsorship of Portelli’s SPAL to cost taxpayers €150,000

The Malta Tourism Authority will pay €150,000 to sponsor an amateur-league Italian football club owned by Gozitan construction magnate Joseph Portelli, The Shift can reveal.

The one-year sponsorship agreement will place VisitMalta branding on the shirts of SPAL, formally known as Ars et Labor Ferrara, which currently competes in Eccellenza Emilia-Romagna – the fifth tier of Italian football.

Sources at the MTA said the sponsorship was approved following direct instructions from Tourism Minister Jo Etienne Abela rather than based on a tourism strategy, economic assessment or projected return on investment.

No evaluation was conducted to establish whether the €150,000 expenditure would attract additional tourists, increase visitor spending or provide Malta with meaningful exposure in the Italian market, according to the sources.

They described the sponsorship as a waste of public funds that “makes no economic sense” from a tourism perspective, particularly since Italy is already one of Malta’s largest and most established tourism markets.

Italian tourists are considered a high-volume but relatively low-yield segment, tending to stay for shorter periods and spend less per night than visitors from several other markets. Malta received around 590,000 Italian tourists last year.

The Shift reported last week that the MTA had refused to disclose the sponsorship’s value, duration or package details after the agreement was announced in Ferrara.

The authority was also asked to explain how sponsoring a fifth-tier football club formed part of its strategy for attracting quality tourists from Italy. No reply was received.

SPAL was acquired by Portelli through JP Football Holdings on 9 July after financial difficulties led to the historic club’s exclusion from Serie C and its subsequent re-establishment in Italy’s amateur football system.

Just weeks after Portelli’s acquisition, VisitMalta became one of the club’s principal commercial sponsors, effectively using Maltese taxpayers’ money to support the developer’s latest private venture.

Ester Tamasi, who heads the MTA’s Italian office, publicly credited Portelli with initiating the sponsorship, saying the project was “born thanks to” him.

Both Portelli and Tourism Minister Jo Etienne Abela are Gozitan.

Portelli is also a known donor to the Labour Party and has acknowledged financing individual politicians, including government ministers, as well as candidates from both major political parties.

The sponsorship raises further questions over the use of the MTA’s marketing budget and the influence of political instructions over its commercial decisions.

It also represents a sharp departure from the rationale previously used to justify VisitMalta’s costly football sponsorships.

The MTA promoted its secret agreement with Manchester United by pointing to the Premier League club’s claimed global following of 1.1 billion people and its reach across Europe, Asia, America and the Middle East.

SPAL, by contrast, plays regional amateur football five divisions below Serie A and has a predominantly local following centred around Ferrara.

Despite this limited reach, taxpayers will pay €150,000 for a single season, without any documented assessment showing what Malta is expected to receive in return.