A few days ago, the Maltese national football team succumbed to its umpteenth defeat in international competitions. Croatia did not find it hard to beat Malta 3-0, bringing to the fore once again all the weaknesses of the local side. Without raising their game, the Croats were a superior side to the locals from start to finish.

In any game that Malta plays, it’s not a question of if we’re going to concede the first goal. It’s a question of how long it will take our opponents to do so. And, once the first goal is scored, then the next question is how many more we will concede.

We have been arguing for years about the low level of local football when compared to that in other European countries. Just try to compare a game played at Ta’ Qali with another that we see from top European leagues – it’s as if the teams playing at the National Stadium are doing so in slow motion.

So we have to accept the situation that this is our level and, try as we might, we cannot move upwards that much. If anything, we can go below even further. So many other countries, especially from the developing world, have made great strides forward and have surpassed us in the rankings. There was a time when we used to say that if Malta were part of Africa, we could have our chances. Today, we do not say it any more.

Sometimes, as if by miracle, we obtain a draw or a victory. More draws than victories, in fact. We should enjoy that moment, because it then takes us years to get another positive result. That is as far as we can get.

At least, this time round, we have already scored our first goal. In the qualifying round for the South Africa World Cup, we did not manage that either. Whether Jamie Pace’s goal against Israel earlier this year – a game valid for the Euro 2012 competition – will remain our solitary moment of glory remains to be seen.

We have tried different schemes – they did not work. We have said that if Maltese players played in international leagues, then our level would improve; today, a number of them play abroad, but we still have not improved. To think that our captain, our most famous footballer, does not even have a club to play for encapsulates the situation that our football is in.

Perhaps we should console ourselves that there are still some participants who are faring worse than us. San Marino have played 103 games in the last 20 years, losing 99 of them, and drawing four.

Our record is a little bit better. But is this really a consolation?