Five days have passed, and the Maltese Olympic Committee (MOC) remains eerily silent amid growing calls for clarity over its recent team selections. Athlete Gabriel Grixti has publicly challenged the committee to explain what he describes as “injustices and atrocities committed against Maltese athletes.”
Speaking out, Grixti said:
“The tactic the MOC is using is painfully obvious. By staying silent, they hope the public will forget the injustices and atrocities committed against Maltese athletes.”
He insists that, had the MOC “abided by their own selection criteria and acted transparently, without shifting the blame onto me using unfounded and blatantly outrageous excuses,” their response would have been “easy and straightforward.” Instead, he alleges, “the MOC board responsible for the selection twisted the process to serve their own interests, blatantly ignoring the official criteria.”
He has posed three direct questions to MOC President Julian Pace Bonello and his technical board:
- “Why was I discriminated against, especially when other members of the team did not meet the same criteria?”
- “How is it possible that being a Maltese National Champion three times in the past four years is still not enough to earn a rightful place on the national team, which has now been overtaken by foreign-born athletes?”
- “Why is the MOC refusing to be transparent about who made these decisions and how they were taken? What exactly are they hiding?”
He warns that without accountability, “people are too afraid to speak up” in Maltese sport. He has called on the technical board to take responsibility and demands that “those making such decisions should be removed from office without delay.”
Ironically, he points out, the first three rights listed in the MOC’s own Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration are: the right to compete without discrimination; the right to a transparent, fair selection process; and the right to clear, timely information. “Is this what Maltese sport has come to?” he asks, challenging the MOC to prove otherwise.
