Valletta FC, one of Malta’s most historic football clubs, has been relegated from the country’s top league for the first time ever after suffering a heavy defeat on Sunday afternoon.
The capital club needed a win against Naxxar Lions in the penultimate match of the season if it was to have any hope of not being relegated from the BOV Premier League for the first time ever in its long history.
But Valletta put on barely any resistance as they fell to a 4-0 defeat, while Mosta FC drew 0-0 against Balzan FC to go four points clear of Valletta with just one game left to play.
This meant that Valletta were mathematically relegated to Malta’s second tier, the Challenge League, together with Sirens FC and Gudja United FC.
It has been a torrid season for Valletta, which has won 25 league titles, 14 FA Trophies and a record 13 Super Cups, as they regressed from what was an already disappointing 2022/23 season where the club finished in 8th spot out of 14 clubs.
With just five wins from 25 matches this season, and with four clubs being relegated rather than the usual two as Malta’s top flight shrinks to 12 teams, the writing had been on the wall for some time.
A draw to Hibernians two weeks ago and a win against Balzan last week gave Valletta’s loyal supporters – known as the Citizens – some degree of hope of a miraculous escape, but it was not to be.
Naxxar were 3-0 up before the end of the first half courtesy of goals from Takuma Yamaguchi, Pablo, and Robinson Blandon. Caretaker coach Juan Cruz Gill – Valletta’s third coach of this season – made four changes at half time hoping to shift momentum, but no such shift came, and Blandon scored again after 65 minutes to put the game to bed.
