IIGA AGM 2022 - Gozo elected as New Member

Wed, 13 Jul 2022

The Internatonal Island Games Associaton held their AGM in Guernsey on 9 July 2022 and voted in Gozo as a new member of the Games family. Representatives from Gozo have joined the rest of the member islands for a pre-visit to Guernsey ahead of the 2023 Games. As part of the visit, the island representatives visited many of the sports and accommodation venues that will be used for the Guernsey Games. The IIGA held their AGM at Les Cotils on Saturday 9 July with presentations from the Guernsey Organising Committee, Ynys Mon who will host in 2025 and Orkney, the hosts for 2027. A vote was also taken to invite the island of Gozo to join the Games. Gozo is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, one of 21 that make up the Maltese archipelago. It has an area of 67 square kilometres and a population of 33,000. The vote was unanimous. Jorgen Pettersson, Chair of the IIGA, said ‘We are delighted to welcome Gozo to the Island Games family. It is the first tme in almost 20 years that we will welcome a new island and we are looking forward to seeing their team in Guernsey next year’. Four representatives from Gozo came to Guernsey: Hon. Clint Camilleri - Minister for Gozo, Joyce Farrugia - Chairperson Gozo Island Games Association, Kevin Azzopardi - Technical Director and Josef Vella - Vice Chair Gozo. Kevin Azzopardi said ‘This is great news for sports development in Gozo and we are really looking forward to our first appearance in the Games in Guernsey. We have a preliminary idea of the sports we will bring - we’re looking at shootng, athletics, cycling, badminton, football, tennis and table tennis so we’re looking at quite a mix’.