Malta, together with Georgia, Libya and Moldova will be taking part in this year’s international tournament later this month.
This year, the tournament, which is being sponsored by Coca Cola and Multiplus, will see the Malta side under a new coach. In fact, it will be Czech coach Dusan Fitzel’s baptism of fire at the helm of the national team, since his appointment last month.
Georgia, Libya and Moldova are no newcomers to Malta. They have all played here, but what is interesting is the fact that Georgia will be under the charge of well known German coach Klaus Toppmoeller who was also recently appointed, while Libya will be coming over following their participation in the Africa Cup of Nations, where they played some good matches, although they were eliminated in the qualifying rounds. They held Morocco to a draw, but lost to Ivory Coast and Egypt.
The tournament dates are 25 February, 27 February and 1 March.
Euro 2008 draws
National coach Dusan Fitzel spoke about the draws for the forthcoming European Championship qualifiers which were made last Friday.
He said the draw pitted Malta in a tough group and he thinks it will be “very, very difficult.” Despite saying that, he felt confident that with some hard work and good understanding, Malta will be able to get some good results in the matches against Bosnia, Hungary and Moldova. “Greece, Turkey and Norway are in the higher positions in the FIFA ranking list. Those games will be tough for us, but against the others, we should be able to fare better,” he said.
Fitzel added that the objective was already clear on his mind. “I want to see Malta obtaining more points than the recent World Cup qualifiers, scoring more goals and suffering fewer goals,” he said.
MFA president Dr Joe Mifsud said that a meeting is scheduled for 16 February in Istanbul, Turkey, where representatives from the seven nations in Group C, including Malta coach Dusan Fitzel, will decide on the programme for the group matches. He said there will be a possible 14 match days between September 2006 and November 2007, but they needed 12 to stage the matches.
On the other two days, it is possible that friendly matches will be organised.
Dr Mifsud also announced that on the occasion of the 50th anniversary since Malta started playing in the international field, the national team will be playing Austria on 7 February next year. It will be a match to commemorate the first Malta international match 50 years ago. That was played on 24 February 1957 at the old Gzira Stadium when Austria won a classic encounter 3-2, after leading 3-0 till a few minutes from the end. The MFA intends to invite those players who took part in that match and who would still be alive.
Under 21 draws
Mark Miller again reiterated that it will be a tough year for the Under 21s. “If we are eliminated in the preliminary round against Georgia, that would mean the end of competition and the boys would have nothing to look forward to. Having few competitive matches would lead the players lose their motivation,” he said.
Young players’ project
MFA president Dr Joe Mifsud yesterday also announced the launching of a project which regards the youths, starting from those at the MFA national teams between the ages of 14 and 21.
The association is to launch this pilot project to help protect these youngsters in the fight against drug and alcohol abuse. “It will consist of a simple test to determine whether these youngsters are under such influence. Those detected with such an abuse will be told that unless they change to a healthy lifestyle, they will have no future in football. Of course, they will also be dropped from the national teams. Parents of children under 18 years of age will be informed of such tests,” he said.
Dr Mifsud said the association wanted to make it clear to everyone that those caught providing drugs to children will be reported to the police. “We will show no mercy,” he warned. And added: “If this project proves to be successful, we will then extend it to the club nurseries.”