A press conference was held at the Valletta Local Council on Tuesday. 

The press conference was addressed by Profs Alexei Dingli Major of Valletta local council, Dr Luciano Busuttil Chairman Sportmalta, Mr Carlo Micallef Chief Marketing Officer at Malta Tourism Authority, Ms Monalita Balzan Secretary IO & GP of Malta, Mr Felix Rizzo President Valletta Subbuteo Club and Mr Joe Zammit Pavia President Valletta Lions Table Football Club.

Mr Carlo Micallef commented that by these international tournaments apart from promoting our sports, we are also promoting a different kind of tourism in Malta. The Malta Tourism Authority is the main sponsor in this event.

Dr Luciano Busuttil felt nostalgic about this event as he used to play Table football himself. SportMalta is helping this not so popular sport as it is an alternative to other sports. This sport is also honouring the country as we have very talented players who are highly ranked in the FISTF world rankings.

Profs. Alexei Dingli was also nostalgic about this event as he too used to play Table Football, some time ago this sport was more popular before the era of video games, but it seems that once again it is gaining popularity. Profs Dingli was very happy that both Clubs organised this tournament together in the year of Valletta 2018, putting apart their sport rivality.  He was also happy that this year the Valletta Subbuteo Club won the Maltese Championship, another honor to the city.

This tournament is being organised by the two Valletta Clubs that is Valletta Subbuteo Club and Valletta Lions TFC on the occasion of this year being the Valletta the Capital of Europe - Valletta 2018.

Over 100 athletes will be participating in this tournament and apart from the Maltese Athletes we have athletes from 9 other countries; Russia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Australia, Tunisia, Scotland and France.  This tournament is the biggest ever organised in Malta for these last 15 years.  Mainly high ranked players will be taking part; World ranking number 2 in the Open category, World ranking number 7 in the Veteran Category and World ranking number 3 in the Under 19 Category.

In the Teams Category there will be 6 teams participating, 4 Maltese teams, 1 team from Italy and 1 team from Greece.

The competition will be held at the Mikel Ang Hall at the Mediterranean conference centre this Saturday 28th April 2018 and Sunday 29th April 2018 from 8.30am onwards and the public is encouraged to attend.