The 2017–18

Maltese FA Trophy The FA Trophy, currently known as the Meridianbet FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football (soccer), football cup competition that takes place in Malta. The cup was founded in 1933; following a match between England national footba ...

was the 80th version of the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament. It was sponsored by Boost Diesel, which was revealed during the draws of the first, second and third round of the Maltese FA Trophy at the Trophies Lounge in

Malta Football Association The Malta Football Association (MFA; ) is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Malta. The Association organises the Maltese Football League for both men and women and several other competitions, including knockout competitions ...

headquarters in

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

. A total of sixty–four clubs participated in this season's cup competition.

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

were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the third round by

Naxxar Lions Naxxar Lions Football Club is a professional 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 th ...

in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

on 2 December 2017. The winners of the trophy were

Valletta Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...

who won their 14th title following a 2–1 win over

Birkirkara Birkirkara (abbreviated as B'Kara or BKR) is a city in the Eastern Region, Malta, Eastern Region of Malta. It is the second most populous on the Malta (island), island, with 24,356 inhabitants as of 2020. The town consists of five autonomous pari ...

in the final. Despite losing the final, Birkirkara earned a place in the first qualifying round of the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic Sta ...

, as Valletta had already qualified for the a European competition following their league triumph.

Format

The Maltese FA Trophy this season was a single elimination tournament between 64 clubs. Matches which were level after regulation advanced to extra time and afterwards to penalties to determine a winner, when needed.

Schedule

Preliminary round

Five preliminary round matches were played on 2–3 September 2017. The draw for the preliminary, first, and second rounds was held 7 August 2017.

First round

Nine first round matches were played on 9–20 September 2017. The draw for the preliminary, first, and second rounds was held 7 August 2017.

Second round

Eighteen second round matches were played on 21–22 October 2017. The draw for the preliminary, first, and second rounds was held 7 August 2017. All teams from

Maltese First Division 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 ...

and

Maltese Second Division The Maltese Second Division (also known as the BOV Second Division due to sponsorship reasons) was the third-highest division in Maltese football until 2020 when it was merged with the Maltese Third Division to create the National Amateur Le ...

entered in the Second round.

Third round

Sixteen third round matches were played on 1–3 December 2017. The draw for the third and fourth rounds was held 13 November 2017. All teams from

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as 360Sports Malta Premier for sponsorship reasons with 360Sports (colloquialism, colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Foot ...

entered in the Third round.

Fourth round

Eight fourth round matches were played on 19–21 January 2018. The draw for the third and fourth rounds was held 13 November 2017. In the Fourth Round there were 10 clubs from

left, 4 clubs from

left and 2 clubs from

Gozo Football League The Gozo Football League is a two-tier football competition for clubs on the Maltese island of Gozo Gozo ( ), known in classical antiquity, antiquity as Gaulos, is an island in the Malta#The Maltese archipelago, Maltese archipelago in the Me ...

left.

Quarter-finals

Four quarter-final matches were played on 17 February 2018. The draw for the Quarter-finals was held 22 January 2018. The round included the two teams from

that were still in the competition:

Qrendi Qrendi () is a village in the Western Region, Malta, Western Region of Malta, with a population of 3,148 people as of October 2021. It is located close to Mqabba, Żurrieq and Siġġiewi. Within its boundaries are the two Neolithic temples of ...

and Zejtun Corinthians.

Semi-finals

Two semi-final matches were played on 28 and 29 April 2018 at

National Stadium, Ta' Qali The National Stadium, locally also referred to as Ta' Qali, officially known as Grawnd Nazzjonali (Maltese for ''National Stadium''), is a stadium located in Ta' Qali, Malta. The stadium, which also contains the headquarters of the Malta Football ...

. The draw for the Semi-finals was held on 23 April 2018. The four clubs left were all from

Balzan Balzan () is a municipality in the Northern Region, Malta, Northern Region of Malta, and together with Attard and Lija, forms part of the "Three villages of Malta, Three Villages" (). The village originally consisted of a group of small dwellin ...

were the only club remaining in the competition that had never won the

in the past. Both Semi-final matches were Live on

TVM2 TVM+ (formerly TVMNews+ and originally TVM2) is a terrestrial television network in Malta, operated by national broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services that was launched in 2012. Unlike the more wide-ranging TVM network, TVM+ focuses primari ...

Final

The final was played on 5 May 2018.

reached their tenth

final having won it five times.

reached their twenty-third final and had won it thirteen times previously.

and

have met together in

final twice before, having previously met in 1999 and 2001. When meeting in the finals,

have both times. The last time

and

met together in

was during the 2015-16 fourth round when

beat

by 1–0.

Television rights

The following matches were broadcast live on

References

External links

The official FA Trophy website

The Maltese FA Trophy on UEFA
{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Maltese FA Trophy

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

Maltese FA Trophy seasons

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...