The Moreno Among Us

The Malta Independent   

   

Watching the clash between South Korea and Italy, I was thinking that a miracle was about to happen.

 

Italy, playing their best games in the World Cup, were just three minutes away from winning the match against a relegation-quality Serie A side, in spite of all that the prejudiced referee Moreno could throw at them.

“It is like EU referenda. When the electorate decides against the EU they keep trying until the answer is right.”

The referee seemed to have a clear brief. Make perfectly accurate decisions when the ball is midfield but make sure to throw all benefit of the doubt against the Italians whenever the ball is in either penalty area. Penalty, yellow cards and other biased decisions where to be thrown at the Italians making sure to demotivate them as such abuse gets loaded onto the four valid goals that were capriciously annulled in the previous two games against Croatia and Mexico.

Anybody who believes that it is quite coincidental for the same team to suffer five valid goals cancelled in three consecutive matches, and who in the last crucial match gets denied two clear penalties and have their best midfield player sent off capriciously at the golden goal stage, would probably believe in fairy tales.

But it was not to be. The inevitable had to happen when the dice was so loaded. South Korea not only scored a late equaliser but after Italy were reduced to 10 men, after they were denied a clear golden goal penalty, and after having a valid golden goal capriciously annulled, it had to happen that South Korea were to find a golden goal.

It is like EU referenda. When the electorate decides against the EU they keep trying until the answer is right. Once they get the answer they want then it is a golden goal. Then it’s all over. Nobody bothers to ask the electorate on its views of subsequent changes let alone to re-consider the original decision.

I see a similar analogy in the way the government is approaching the EU issue.

“To be sure, during past months I have increasingly come to believe that it might be better for the country as a whole, to totally shelve the EU membership/partnership issue for a few years. Instead, we should concentrate on the internal matters which need urgent and disciplined attention …”

The government is like the Ecuadorian referee treating the electorate the same way Moreno treated the Italian team. Just as Moreno was not interested in the real game and started cancelling whatever the Italians could produce, the government is not interested in discussing or putting on the agenda the issues which are really affecting our quality of life. As Moreno was only interested in making space for the Koreans to score the goals, the government is only interested in making space for the EU to show us how to save us from our own indiscipline.

This is the surest way to lose the game. It was therefore refreshing this week having the opposition leader agreeing that it is wrong to put the EU issue, in favour or against, as the top priority on the national agenda, eclipsing the urgency of the re-structuring programme which we must do for ourselves. His words are worth quoting.

“To be sure, during past months I have increasingly come to believe that it might be better for the country as a whole, to totally shelve the EU membership/partnership issue for a few years. Instead, we should concentrate on the internal matters which need urgent and disciplined attention.

There could hardly be adverse consequences with such an approach both for the anti- and pro-membership lobbies. A few years of waiting would allow the island to catch up on the modernisation and restructuring effort that it needs to carry out, thereby allowing it to secure a more favourable deal with Brussels.

How long can Malta fudge the internal choices it has to make, in full awareness of the point that if we continue to postpone decisions, the problems that have been allowed to pile up will threaten our survival?”

The government should stop acting like Moreno, let the nation approach the EU issue objectively with maturity requiring a longer time span, and meanwhile focus on the real game of re-structuring the economy in order to be able to take a smart decision about the EU in our own good time. One Moreno in FIFA circles is more than we need.