The Gozo Sports Board has been launched by The Ministry for Gozo and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Sports, Youth, Research and Innovation.
With the creation of the Gozo Sports Board the government is committed to increase participation in sports in Gozo while working on the quality of programmes offered and the design of new sports initiatives.
This new Board will offer a variety of programmes aimed at increasing sports participation and physical activity for Gozitans of all ages, abilities and needs, both during the week, after school hours and at weekends.
It will also target other sectors to make physical activity and sport more accessible to minority groups, or sectors of the population who have less opportunities including the for the Special Olympics. The board will aim to ensure that all training sessions are held at well maintained venues by qualified coaching staff.
The Gozo Sports Board will also ensure that children younger than nine years will be given training that develops their physical literacy by developing their fundamental movement and sport skills.
The ABCs (Agility, Balance, Co-ordination and Speed) of training will be the focus of all under nine programmes and will include training in the all basic sports.
Parliamentary Secretary Dr Stefan Buontempo, during his address highlighted the aim of the Government to increase the number of participants of all age-groups of the population by providing assistance to sports organisations.
Dr. Buontempo stated that age and ability should not be a barrier to participation in sports. “Every citizen should be given the opportunity to be active irrespective of age, ability or gender,”
The Minister for Gozo, Dr Anton Refalo, emphasised that in its strive to instigate a sport culture, the Ministry for Gozo endeavors to develop and implement sport programmes that target all members of the Gozitan community.
He acknowledged that participation in sport and physical activity, is not only a powerful means of promoting health, but also a means of building social capital and related benefits, including education, youth development, social inclusion, crime prevention, gender equality and economic development.
Dr Rafelo and Dr Buontempo explained that they recognised that until now Gozo suffered from a lack of centralised representative stakeholders able to voice their members’ concerns with the relevant authorities.
“Thanks to this initiative sport organisations will now have a unified voice to channel their feedback to the Governmental authorities, which will seek the Board`s active participation in formulating and implementing the Governments’ sports policy for Gozo.”
The Gozo Sports Board includes member from ten different sports organizations in Gozo which are; horse racing, martial arts, gymnastics, athletics, football, rugby, shooting, baseball, softball and waterpolo.