The European youth championships are being staged in Malta between Saturday 8 September and Saturday 15 September.
Sixteen teams will be taking part. Malta is drawn alongside Italy, Spain and Greece in Group B. Group A is made up of the Netherlands, Slovenia, Hungary and France, group C consists of Poland, Belarus, Serbia and Slovakia, while Turkey, Montenegro, Romania and Croatia are in Group D.
Malta coach Anthony Farrugia is convinced that this championship will be a very useful experience for Malta’s youths team despite the fact that it will be playing against superior opponents.
Farrugia said yesterday the recent training camp in Hungary came in handy for the side as it played five matches – two against the Hungarian national youths team, two against the Under 19 side of BVSC team and another against the Kuwaiti Under 19 side.
Farrugia said this tournament will be very difficult but most of the players will get the necessary experience for the future. “The average age of my group is 17. We also have one 15-year-old among the group and that shows we are looking ahead towards the future,” he said.
ASA president Robert Ebejer said the aim behind Malta’s participation in this tournament was to give the youngsters the chance to gain useful experience for the future. “It is useless to say that we have no chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals. It is already obvious that we will be playing for the lower placings in the second round, because against Italy, Spain and Greece, we do not entertain much hope of registering good results. These are youngsters from three of the top European waterpolo countries and we are expecting to have a tough time against them,” he remarked.
Ebejer also said that he was sure, however, that the Maltese will be battling from start to finish. “They will never give up. They have gone through a lot of sacrifices, they have trained regularly and most of them have played for a few minutes in the first division. Now this seems to be the icing on the cake. They are all looking forward to make the most of this experience,” he added.
Ebejer went on to explain that Malta is taking part as the host country. “It is the first time ever that the youths are taking part in the finals. It is also the first time they are playing against such top teams as Italy, Spain and Greece. We wanted to win the bid to organise this event as we knew it would be the only chance for our youths to take part. Simply because the qualifying tournaments are held at times which do not favour our participation. In fact, they are held either in March (when we are not yet well prepared) or in May (during the exams period). That is why we normally do not take part,” he said.
Ebejer said that the ASA needed around Lm25,000 to organise this tournament. “It is always difficult to organise such an event. The organisation of past tournaments in Malta helped us in no small measure to win the bid. I must thank the sponsors - Wilkinson Sword, Eurosport, Arena Sports Shop and the Maltese Council for Sports. Had it not been for their contribution, the ASA would not have been in a position to organise this event here.
Dr Haluk Toygarli, chairman of the Technical Waterpolo Committee and Gianni Lonzi, vice-chairman, together with four other delegates from the Committee, will be attending the championships to conduct and supervise the matches.
The squad
Sliema: J. Spiteri Staines, M. Manara, J. Gabarretta, N. Lubrano (captain), A.Agius.
Neptunes: T. Agius, J. Camilleri, D. Caruana, R. Sciortino
Sirens: J. Sammut, R. Mock, P. Borg.
Exiles: K. Griscti, A. Borg Cole.
Coach Anthony Farrugia will be dropping two of the players today to make it a 13-man squad.
Match days
Malta’s match days are as follows:
v. Italy on Saturday 8 September; v. Spain on Sunday 9 September and v. Greece on Monday 10 September. All the three matches commence at 6.45pm.