San Giljan will start their defence of the title against Exiles on Saturday 17 March.
The Winter League, sponsored by the Bank of Valletta, is to commence a day earlier, that is on Friday 16 March, when Valletta will be facing Neptunes. The other first day’s encounter will be that between Sliema and Sirens, which will be played immediately after the San Giljan-Exiles clash.
Ten teams are taking part in this year’s league – six in the Premier division and four in the First division.
The First division draws were also made yesterday with Otters facing B’Buga in the first match on 16 March and Ta’ Xbiex meeting Marsaskala the following day.
The Premier division will consist of one round. The first two will qualify directly to the semifinals, while the other four will be involved in playoffs with the two winners also qualifying for the semifinals.
The First division is to be played over two rounds so that each team will play six matches. In the semifinals, the first placed will meet the 4th placed, while the second placed will face the third placed.
Joe Caruana Curran, ASA president, said waterpolo has now become an almost all-year-round sport. “We started the year with the Enemed Cup, instead of, as usual, the Winter League. This will help our players to keep in top form with the fans having the opportunity to follow their favourite teams for three major competitions,” he said.
He thanked all the clubs for helping in the preparation of the players.
Anthony Scicluna, Chief Officer at Bank of Valletta, also addressed the press saying that long standing supporters of the ASA, “we wish to take this opportunity to augur a successful qualification from the matches against Belarus.
Scicluna said he was happy that the investment in the youth sector was helping the game of waterpolo earn the respect of others. “The five Under 19 players in the national team squad is certainly the result of such an investment by the ASA,” he added.
He also hoped this year’s winter league will be even more competitive than past years.”We are looking forward to crown this year’s BOV waterpolo winter league champions on 1 May,” he said.
National team
Caruana Curran also spoke briefly about the national team’s participation at the recent LEN Europa Cup in Croatia, where the locals faced top world opposition in the form of Serbia and Croatia, not to mention the Netherlands and Greece.
He added: “Although the scoresheets reflected the supremacy of the above mentioned teams, our players gained a lot of experience playing against such giants of the game. This should prove to be beneficial in the upcoming qualifier for the European Championship against Belarus in Minsk, next Saturday as well as the second leg in Malta on 3 March.”
He added that the ASA – and BOV – were very happy the fruit of previous BOV sponsorships being reaped. “In Croatia, we had five Under 19 players and it is imperative to say that the average age of our squad is just 23.8 years. This shows that the ASA’s heavy investment in youths is now paying off,” he said.
National team coach Karl Izzo said he was confident that the team will do well against Belarus. “In the Croatia tournament, apart from the defeats suffered, I was only disappointed with the last two sessions during the match against Greece. However, I am still confident that we will be able to overcome this hurdle to qualify for the Championship finals for the second year running.”
Squad for Minsk
National coach Karl Izzo confirmed the same squad that travelled to Croatia last week, for the forthcoming European Championship qualifiers against Belarus.
The 13 players who will be travelling to Minsk are:
Nicholas Grixti (Sirens), Nicholas Bugelli (Sliema), Andreas Galea (San Ġiljan), Darren Zammit (San Ġiljan), Jeremy Abela (Neptunes), Matthew Zammit (San Ġiljan), Stevie Camilleri (Neptunes), Jordan Camilleri (Neptunes), Ben Plumpton (San Ġiljan), Aurlien Cousin (Exiles), Zach Mizzi (Sliema), Dino Zammit (San Ġiljan), Jake Tanti (San Ġiljan).
The Malta contingent will be leaving Malta tomorrow.
The match on Saturday is to be screened on TVM2.