Journalists from Cyprus, San Marino, Luxembourg and Andorra have all been saying that it will be difficult for any of the eight countries to match the perfect organisation of the Malta Games in 2003.

It is true that in Andorra, it was only the first day yesterday, but everyone seemed to have been having problems, especially because of the fact that only a few of the locals here can speak English or Italian and only a handful know the French language.

A Cyprus journalist, Costas Aravis, who was also in Malta two years ago, said: “The Malta Games were simply excellent. We had everything. Good organisation, excellent press facilities, good transport, no problems with language, good food and great hospitality. We could not hope for more.”