Football in Malta is run by the

Malta Football Association The Malta Football Association (MFA; mt, Assoċjazzjoni tal-Futbol ta' Malta) is the governing body of football in Malta. The Association organises the Maltese Football League and several other competitions, including a knockout competition ...

and was introduced to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

during

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

rule in the mid-19th century. The sport at the time was new to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and was used as a means of entertainment for the soldiers stationed in

at the various barracks around Malta at the time. In 1863 a football association was formed which governed rules and regulations for this quickly changing sport, which was still in amateur competition stage and played in an un-scheduled format until 1909 when a league format was introduced. The association runs the national football team, as well as administering the semi-professional

Maltese Football League Football in Malta is run by the Malta Football Association and was introduced to Malta during British Empire, British rule in the mid-19th century. The sport at the time was new to England, and was used as a means of entertainment for the soldier ...

and the

Maltese Cup The FA Trophy, currently known as the IZIBET FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football cup competition that takes place in Malta. The cup was founded in 1933; following a match between England and Italy, played in Rome in May 1933, ...

for club sides.

History

The first Maltese championship in the 1909-1910 season was won by

Floriana Floriana ( mt, Il-Furjana or ''Il-Floriana''), also known by its title Borgo Vilhena, is a fortified town in the South Eastern Region area of Malta, just outside the capital city Valletta. It has a population of 2,205 as of March 2014. Floriana i ...

. The league regularly changed in numbers as teams changed administrators, dropped out of the league, and new teams re-entered. Up until the season of 1939-1940 this first league remained the only league in

Maltese football Football in Malta is run by the Malta Football Association and was introduced to Malta during British rule in the mid-19th century. The sport at the time was new to England, and was used as a means of entertainment for the soldiers stationed in M ...

, and was called the Maltese division one.

Sliema Wanderers Sliema Wanderers Football Club, nicknamed "tax-Xelin" ( of the shilling), is a professional Maltese football club. It is the most successful team in Malta and hails from the seaside town of Sliema. It currently plays in the Maltese Premier Leag ...

and

dominated, winning all but four championships up to 1940. The

league trophy was implemented in the 1935 season which

and

continued to dominate up to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

between them. Unfortunately due to the

, the league had to break-off since many Maltese players were drafted in to the defence of the island during the early 1940s when the

Maltese archipelago Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

were heavily involved in the North Africa conflict due to its strategic position in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. Normal league activity resumed in the 1945, after the end of the war with the league format of four teams joining including

and

. The Maltese football association league format soon changed however, to a multiple tier format as from the 1946 season. The passing of the North Africa conflict saw the Maltese football associations largest interest with fifteen clubs registering to join the Maltese FA in the 1940s, doubling the size of the number of registered clubs within ten years. Many of today's familiar names joined the league including

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

and Hibernians. Interest in the Maltese league continued throughout the 1950s, 1960's and 1970s with fifteen more clubs joining the league including

Birkirkara FC Birkirkara Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Birkirkara, on the island of Malta. The club was formed in 1950, following the amalgamation of Birkirkara United and Birkirkara Celtic. Birkirkara currently play in t ...

in 1950 . It was however Hibernians and

who put together a good challenge to

and

, winning eight championships between them, and three league trophies. The 1980s saw the monopolization of

and

finally come to an end with four clubs taking most of the honours in this decade. The inauguration of the new national stadium,

Ta' Qali Ta' Qali is a wide open space in the limits of Attard and Mosta in central and northern Malta respectively, which contains the national football stadium, the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre, Ta' Qali National Park, a crafts village, and a nation ...

could have been a reason for this, with a large re-structuring of the Maltese league program to coincide with

's new impressive home.

Hibernians F.C. Hibernians Football Club is a Maltese professional football club based in the town of Paola. History The club played one season in 1922 as Constitutionals FC, representing the pro-British Constitutional Party. They started up again in the 19 ...

went on to win the Maltese league championship in 1981 and 1982,

Rabat Ajax Rabat Ajax Football Club is a Maltese football club based in Rabat. The last promotion to the Maltese Premier League was achieved in the 2011–12 season, when they earned promotion after finishing second behind Melita. In the 2020-21 National ...

(formed 1930) won in 1985, and 1986, however the real surprise came from one of Malta's oldest clubs, Ħamrun Spartans who won the league three times in 1983, 1987 and 1988, and won a five league trophies.

did win the league trophy in 1981, but were relegated to

's second league in the 1985 season. The last decades of the century saw the league format expand to its fourth tier, now with fifty clubs registered in the league. A diverse range of clubs now sharing the trophies in the Maltese league's top tier to contribute to an entertaining and high quality semi-professional football league.

enjoyed a golden age in the 1990s winning five championships and four league cups. A re-juvenated

won the championship in 1993, as well as two league cups, and

, Ħamrun Spartans and Hibernians also picked up notable honours. At present there are a number of clubs with the resources and capability of winning the championship trophy, which is now called the Maltese Premier League trophy.

are the notable new force in the Maltese league, after winning their first championship in the year 2000, and the team from Malta's largest town has regularly picked up honours since propelling itself into the history books. Other teams to have made relative impact were

Żurrieq Żurrieq ( mt, Iż-Żurrieq ) is a town in the Southern Region of Malta. It is one of the oldest towns in the country, and it has a population of 11,823 inhabitants as of March 2014. The first documentation about it being a parish dates back to ...

in the 1980s and

in the late 1990s.

Early league format

The first Malta Football Association Premier League (1st Division) 1909-1910

Current system

Currently the Maltese national and official system consists of 53 teams within 3 tiers. These are the

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as BOV Premier League for sponsorship reasons with Bank of Valletta (colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Football Associa ...

, the

Maltese Challenge League The Maltese Challenge League (referred to as the BOV Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest division in Maltese football, behind the Maltese Premier League. The First Division was the precursor of the present Premier L ...

, and the

Maltese National Amateur League The Maltese National Amateur League (referred to as the IZIBet Amateur League for sponsorship reasons) is the third-highest division in Maltese football, replacing the Maltese Second Division and Maltese Third Division during the 2020–21 seas ...

. The

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

is a knockout competition for all clubs taking part in league competitions in Malta and Gozo; the winners play the Premier League champions in the

Maltese Super Cup The Maltese Super Cup is an annual super cup tie held in Malta between the champions of the previous Maltese Premier League season and the holders of the Maltese FA Trophy. In the event that the Premier League champion also won the FA Trophy, the ...

Other competitions

Other football competitions run in Malta include: *the women's football league: First Division *the Youth League - Commonly known as the Minors' League *the

known as the F.A Trophy *the

- played between the winners of the Maltese League and Cup *the Youth Leagues (not to be confused with the previous one) - organised by the Youth FA for boys aged up to 17

Viewership and attendances

In the latest decades, particularly the 1990s the Maltese leagues have not had high attendances except for particular derby matches or league deciders. This has often been attributed to various reasons, including the higher quality of foreign leagues (especially the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

and the English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

), slow-paced football, low interest, relatively unknown players, lack of professionalism and perceived corruption. This has improved since the promotion of

Qormi Qormi ( mt, Ħal Qormi ; pronounced in the Qormi dialect), also known by its title Città Pinto, is a city in the Southern Region of Malta, southwest of Valletta in the centre of the island. It has a population of 16,324 (as of March 2018), mak ...

to the top tier, a team which has had a strong following ever since getting promoted. A phenomenon also occurred in the lowest tier, where Zejtun Corinthians and

Naxxar Lions Naxxar Lions Football Club is a football club from the town of Naxxar in northern Malta Their historical and arch-rivals are Mosta FC. A match between Naxxar Lions and Mosta FC, is known as the derby of the north, but because there are other ...

, two sides from relatively large localities, started to push for promotion from the Maltese Third Division during season 2009-10. This ended up in a rivalry between the two teams who boasted stronger squads when compared to the other Third Division teams, thus attracting larger crowds than usual. However attendances remain relatively low in numbers. It is important to note that very few statistics are available.

English and Italian rivalries

Most Maltese people prefer to watch English and Italian leagues. This traces its beginning to the nation's political past, where in the 1930s a hot political issue was the Language Question, i.e. whether Malta had to adopt either

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as an official language. This created pro-British and pro-Italian factions within the Maltese, virtually splitting the population in two. This rivalry now remains subtly in the nation's main political parties, but also in football, where as said before Maltese prefer foreign leagues to the Maltese one. During World Cups Maltese generally side with either the English or the Italians. Popular foreign clubs are mainly

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...

. Popular national teams apart from their own are mainly

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in the third place, followed by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

to a lesser extent. These foreign fandoms generally divert attention from Maltese football to the detriment of the Maltese leagues and the

Malta national football team The Malta national football team ( mt, Tim nazzjonali tal-futbol ta' Malta) represents Malta in international football and is controlled by the Malta Football Association, the governing body for football in Malta. The first official game playe ...

References

External links

MaltaFootball.com

- Maltese football league tables, records & statistics database.
Maltacalcio
- Italian website