Hi Sliema2....premier league gets underway on the 5th August this year....Fixtures are not yet out but they should be within the next coupld of days.

To follow the Maltese Footie scene just follow this link.

http://www.maltafootball.com

Enjoy

Trevor

PS My team is Floriana FC......oldest and most successfull club in Malta established in 1894 and has won no fewer than 103 trophies anhd honours including 25 league championships and 25 Knock out and FA trophy cups. INVALID URL

sorry that should read http://www.florianafc.com put one too many forward slash in there

Hi Trevor, many thanks for that, if the season starts on August 5th then that gives me loads of time to decide which games I want to see in September, November, and possibly February depending wether the league has split at that time or not, who do you fancy for the MPL in the coming season ?, I think top 4 will be the same old suspects of Valletta, Sliema, Birkirkara, and another possibly St Patricks or an outsider like Marsaxlokk, but it would be nice to see the Irish greens in a strong finishing position, it would also be nice to see Maltese teams acheiving moderate success in Europe, Valletta got mauled in the Intertoto cup preliminary round the other week , I would be very interested to hear your opinion as to why Maltese teams do not do even moderately well against even unknown and mediocre opposition in European competitions.

Ciao for now
Sliema2

Well Maltese Football always a very hot subject and so many opinions out there expressed by people. Must be careful what I say here.
Firstly for next season I think that there will be three teams that seem to be in a position to challenge for the league - Sliema, Hibernians and Birkirkara. Followed by Floriana, Marsaxlokk and Valletta. In my opinion these will be the top six teams next season, with newly promoted Hamrun and Mosta together with Msida and Pieta who will be fighting the relegation zone. The biggest problem that Malta has is the lack of financing available for Maltese Football. One needs to keep in mind that the football leagues in malta are all amateaur and played by part time players. There are on the other hand two particular teams that seem to have a bottomless pit full of money and pay very high wages to the best players. Basically it costs a premier league club like Floriana in the region of Lm 120,000 to survive a whole season in the premier league....anything less then this one would be looking at battling out in relegation zone. The top three teams have a budget of around Lm200,000. The sad thing about it is that a team can spend Lm200,000 and has no guarantee of a place in European competitions, since Malta is only allocated 4 places. 1 Champions League, 2 UEFA Cup and 1 Intertoto cup. The funds received from UEFA for winning the league in Malta are just Lm60,000 and the majority of this amount would go to the players as their bonus. This gives the team access to the preliminary qualifiying round of the champions league. Since Malta's ranking is so low with UEFA, we get to play against the lower rated countries thus one would not be looking at any TV rights at all. TV Rights are paid locally for the league matches but this money goes to the MFA and not the team. Gate money the clubs receive approximately 20% of the total gates after all expenses are deducted so clubs must depend on donations, membership fees and fund raising activities. What few people do not realise especially overseas is that Malta could be an excellent opportunity to groom young players into full professionals. Such a set up of course would require some investment in facilities. For Example. If A UK Premier club financed a local club to the tune of around Lm500,000 a year, then the children playing football in Malta with the clubs nursery can be trained professionally and groomed into a professional outfit, within a couple of years the first team would be converted to a full professional side and automatically become a feeder squad to the team in the UK. It could be the perfect solution to even a 1st or 2nf Division club in the Uk with the aim of climbing the ranks. This is the main problem in Malta since the youngsters in malta are excellent players till the age of around 18 or 19 infact the results achieved by the National under 21 Squad show this, but once they reach 18 or 19 they realise the there is no possibility to turn professional and they start enjoying life....so if there is anybody on this website that is interested in taking on a team in Malta....make sure it is Floriana FC which is the Oldest and most successfull club in Malta even if we have not won any silverware for a number of years.

Oh by the way since all league matches are played at the national stadium (Teams do not have the finances to build their stadiums or maintain them) you get two games played on Saturday and two games on Sunday with the 5th games played on either Friday or Monday. Ticket price to enter is just Lm3.50 and for this you get to see two matches so it is very cheap. At the same time, last year there was a total of 87,000 people that paid to enter to see all of the premier league matches so attendance is very very poor and this is due to the fact that the teams are all amateur and thus the quality of football is not that good easily comparible to the Conference league I would say

Let me know if you need any more information about football in Malta

*Edit post removed - Glynis*

Careful Mark......that is a very serious accusation so unless you have proof of that I would retract it

I live in Gozo. It goes on here, to the tune of 10,000s of Liri a year. Maybe it doesn't in Malta.....

I retract all statements implying that Maltese (or Gozitan) football is in any way dis-honest.
I would also like to congratulate Spain on their magnificent 12-1 win against Malta in 1983, when needing to win by 11 goals to qualify for the European Championships

Hi Trevor, wow thats a fantastic and fascinating insight in to the local footy scene it has really helped put it all in to perspective for me, it would be interesting to see maybe some english or even Italian team using the MPL as a feeder league to help bring on young players with a view to them gaining experience of regular football, this happens already in other European counties and 2 examples spring to mind with Everton using Home Farm of Dublin as a feeder club, and scumchester united (sorry just cannot say the real name without wanting to spit) using Royal Antwerp of Belgium as a vehicle to help there younger players get a taste of first team football, thanks again for the info Trevor and I am sorry that I couldn't reply earlier but I have been to a meeting off site all day .

Regards
Sliema2

Bugibba HC

If you are still reachable, what is the average attendance at a Maltese Premier League Game?

The Malta national team has come a long way it seems, with an excellent 2-1 win over Hungary last autumn! Michael Mifsud played in Norway for a couple of years, and this speedy little Maltese really has talent.

I am looking forward to the Norway VS Malta games. Its gonna be a blast!