Being one of the few organisations on campus competing in official league matches, University of Malta Futsal felt it was its duty to instil a social policy office and start participating more into issues affecting sports athletes and students alike.
To this end, it has issued a social policy paper, proposing a vision of more teamwork, less inequality and more education on doping within the sports sector.
A series of workshops and exercises testing the idea of teamwork between the players of the UM Futsal Team were conducted last year served to find meaningful gender differences and social inequalities. These exercises, together with consultation with first-hand research resources, served as the basis for this social policy paper, which discusses how the functions of teamwork, inequality and doping might have an adverse effect on sports if not managed well.
The paper makes a number of proposals, citing the need for frequent internal team building sessions to improve teamwork, the need to have an equilibrium in the number of executive roles offered to females, opening up a futsal league for women, reducing or zeroing the discrepancy between remuneration packages offered to men and women, raising awareness about athletes with a physical impairment and their particular needs and catering for them, and the creation of educational campaigns on doping.
It was launched in the presence of Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Sport & Voluntary Organisations, Hon. Clifton Grima and Parliamentary Secretary for Equality and Reforms, Hon. Rosianne Cutajar.
“With the publication of such a paper, the organisation is setting a stepping stone for future work within the policy office. It is keeping true to its commitment to be pro-active at the University of Malta and also within the sports sector“, said Ms Joy Attard, UM Futsal Social Policy Officer.
"I am super proud of the hard work that has been done by University of Malta Futsal Team, in particularly Ms Joy Attard who held the Social Policy Officer role last term and conducted the preparation of this policy paper. Talking about these topics served to break the status quo whilst allowing us to give our input to society on matters that are relevant now. We are not only aiming to reach heights as a futsal team only but also to be a main contributor at the University of Malta. The organisation is aiming to continue pushing on such topics and see that the proposals presented can be implemented. I would also like to give my thanks to Hon. Clifton Grima, Hon. Rosianne Cutajar, Mr Pierre Cassar and Mr Duncan Muscat for their input into this policy paper and to conduct the launch in a safe manner", added Mr Kurt Rizzo, UM Futsal President.
The paper can be accessed in its entirety online.