A footballer with close connections to the Gozo ministry offered a player of the opposing side a government job in exchange for fixing a match in Gozo’s top football league, according to testimony in court.

Police Inspector Wayne Borg gave court evidence following the arraignment of two footballers, Manuel Xerri, 31, and Leonard Camilleri, 39, both from Xewkija. The incident is related to a football match in Gozo between Nadur Youngsters FC and Qala Saints last March.

Inspector Borg said investigations revealed that the Qala Saints player Manuel Xerri used Nadur player Leonard Camilleri to approach his team’s goalkeeper, Steve Sultana, to help the Qala team win the crucial game through a bribe.

Camilleri used to play for Nadur and was close to Sultana.

According to Inspector Borg, Sultana’s prize for letting a ball into his net and helping Qala Saints win the match was “a job with the government with the condition that he would get paid without ever going to work for a whole year.”

The Nadur goalkeeper refused the Qala Saints footballer’s offer and reported the case to the football authorities in Gozo.

So far, it is unclear how Manuel Scerri, a 31-year-old soldier and restauranter, had the authority to offer someone a government job. The president of Qala Saints FC is Noel Mizzi, the driver of Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri.

Sources told The Shift that the young Qala Saints footballer Manuel Xerri, known as ‘il-Pullu‘, is a known character in Xewkija. Despite his young age, he owns various businesses, including the Rendezvous Bar and Grill in Xewkija Square, which closed its doors only a few weeks ago.

Xerri is very close to the club’s president and driver of Minister Camilleri.

Qala Saints were already in the news a few weeks ago.

Minister and Mrs Camilleri with their driver and Qala Saints FC president Noel Mizzi.

The Shift reported that last September, the Qala club president applied to sanction several illegalities at the club’s football ground, which Minister Camilleri inaugurated with great pomp the week before the June MEP and local council elections.

For the occasion, Minister Camilleri threw a party, costing taxpayers thousands, inviting voters to attend the official inauguration of the “state-of-the-art” investment in Gozitan sports.

The sanctioning application filed by the Mizzi shows that most of the football ground’s work was not carried out according to approved plans. At the same time, other structures were built without the necessary green light from the Planning Authority.

Clint Camilleri was the mayor of Qala when the ground project was initiated.