We had published a four-part investigation about the Labour Party’s questionable interests in Santa Luċija. This article is the latest update.
Yesterday, Times of Malta published a story about a government-owned car park that was leased to Santa Luċija’s football club for sports purposes. Instead of sticking to the terms of the lease, the football club entered into an arrangement with failed kidnapper and alleged drug dealer Christian Borg’s car rental company, Princess Operations Ltd. Residents told the Times that the car park, previously available for public use, is now exclusively used by Borg’s company.
Besides facing kidnapping and drug dealing charges, Borg also faces court procedures related to money laundering and tax fraud. Borg had achieved notoriety when the Times had exposed his vast unexplained wealth, at least some of which was derived from business links with prime minister Robert Abela.
This morning, Santa Luċija’s Nationalist Party councillors Liam Sciberras and Connie Debattista (featured photo), filed a judicial protest in court. They are calling for the contract between the football club and Borg’s car rental company to be rescinded. According to a copy of the judicial protest seen by this website, the PN councillors are accusing the football club of signing a concession agreement that flagrantly breaches the conditions imposed by virtue of the agreement that entitles the football club to the land in the first place.
“…the concession was signed without any transparency, in secret, and without any public information being issued about it, and so this was done abusively, illegally, and without the authorisation of Kunsill Malti għall-Isport, between the signatories only, which leads us to presenting this judicial protest through which we are appealing for this agreement to be rescinded, dissolved, and annulled,” the document reads.
In a brief phone call earlier today, Sciberras confirmed that Santa Luċija’s PL mayor, Charmaine St John, held a private meeting with football club president Adrian Gomez Blanco towards the end of the previous local council legislature. At the time, she had downplayed the significance of that meeting by merely describing it as a “cordial” one. Sciberras publicly called her out for not informing the council about the meeting and for using the council’s premises without their permission.
Shortly after that meeting, the football club quietly signed off on the agreement with Borg’s car rental company.
Notably, Gomez Blanco claims to have not been involved in signing the contract with Princess Operations, though Times of Malta’s article from yesterday fails to clarify who signed off on it on the football club’s behalf (noting only that a ‘colleague’ of his had done so). We’ve sent a formal request to Santa Luċija’s football club to clarify whose signature represents them on the stated contract, though it seems the club’s email address and website are not even functional.
Following the PN minority council’s judicial protest earlier today, Santa Luċija’s official local council Facebook page published an update in which it was claimed that SportMalta had sent an official letter to the football club’s secretary, who informed SportMalta that he had resigned from his role.
“Therefore, SportMalta will be sending an official letter to the president of Santa Luċija football club Adrian Gomez to remove the illegality which took place in the parking lot,” the brief statement reads.
“If Santa Luċija football club does not conform to the instructions given by SportMalta, further steps will be taken to remove the illegality via enforcement – meaning that the cars will be removed,” the statement continues.
The local council – which studiously avoided mentioning the mayor’s meeting with the football club’s representatives prior the signing of the contract or Christian Borg himself in its statement – further claimed that it will be instructing lawyers to send a letter to SportMalta “to ensure that this illegality is removed immediately and that the parking space is returned to residents.”
The note does not explain why the council would need to send a letter to an authority which already seems to be taking action to pressure the club into terminating the illegal lease agreement with Princess Operations.
This isn’t the first time that dubious links have been drawn between the local council’s PL representatives, the football club, and the lucrative development deals surrounding the site on which a massive football complex is set to be built. In our previous investigation, published in January of this year, we had noted that PL local councillor Terrence Ellul had failed to declare a conflict of interest when deciding on the council’s official position on the issue. Ellul was a member of the football club’s executive. The council had voted in favour of the development.
Our key findings from last January’s investigation.
