Winter league champions Sliema McDonalds will be facing San Giljan in the opening match of this year’s Winter League which is to start on Friday 1 March.
The competition is once again being sponsored by the Bank of Valletta.
The draws for the competition were made yesterday at the ASA offices at Tal-Qroqq Pool. The six other teams taking part are Neptunes, Exiles, Sirens, Valletta Marsaxlokk and the ASA Juniors Selection.
The other opening round fixtures are as follows:
Marsaxlokk-ASA Juniors; Neptunes-Exiles; Sirens-Valletta. The match between the two local giants of waterpolo – Sliema-Neptunes – is to be played on 1 May.
The clubs accepted a request by the ASA to have Neptunes and Exiles seeded 3 and 4, so that they would avoid playing on Friday 1 March as some of their players would be unavailable.
The league will have a new format this year. ASA president Joe Caruana Curran explained that there will be no play-offs this time. “There will be a single round with the team leading the table at the end of the regular season being crowned champion. The play-off system is being scratched with the aim of having the teams showing their full potential during the regular season rather than relying on the play-offs for the final standings,” he added.
Peter Perotti, of the Bank of Valletta, said the Bank was pleased to be supporting the ASA and congratulated the association for its success in raising the standard of the game locally. “We augur that the Winter League will be an excellent opportunity to see some of our up-coming youngsters gaining the desired experience and that many followers of this popular game will enjoy a number of exciting games as witnessed in the past seasons,” hed added.
The ASA Juniors will be taking part out of competition. In fact, their coach, Anthony Farrugia said that theirs will be a sort of series of preparatory matches in view of their forthcoming commitments which include the European Championships to be staged in Malta between 8 and 15 September. Other commitments are their participation in the summer second division and participation in a Comen Cup event or a training camp between 4 and 7 June.
Seniors national coach Karl Izzo said the national team will have a good number of commitments this year. “There will be three tournaments – all European Championship qualifiers – the first of which is being held next April. This is being held in Denmark with the participation of the host country, Bulgaria, Israel, Russia, Portugal and Malta. The other tournaments are being held in July and November. The top eight are already into the last 16 of the Championships, but the remaining eight will be those finishing in the top echelons of these three tournaments,” he said.
Izzo said he was hoping that Steve Camilleri, who plays for Italian side Bogliasco, will be available to play in the April tournament.
Caruana Curran thanked Bank of Valletta for its continued sponsorship of the competitions. He also stated that they will be discussing with the Bank’s officials and other sponsors who will be asked to help the association financially, as participation in these three tournaments will certainly be very expensive.
Also attending yesterday’s news conference was Vanessa Macdonald, Head, Media and Community Relations, Bank of Valletta, as well as new ASA secretary general Marco Manara, and Alan Bonello, fixtures secretary.