Maltese handball will once again be represented by its national squad for the fifth edition of the Men’s Challenge Trophy which this year will take place in Luxembourg and Georgia. The squad has been preparing itself hard for a couple of months now and all the selection is highly concentrated on this upcoming international tournament.
The Challenge Trophy tournament was established in 1999 by the European Handball Federation (EHF), after being decided upon by the EHF Congress in 1998 in Hungary, and is aimed at the developing handball nations of Europe. This year will see the 5th edition of the men’s competition taking place in the last week of October, between the 24th and 28th October. For the first time two Challenge Trophy events will take place at two different venues.
After the withdrawal of the Scottish Handball Federation as an organizer, the EHF worked on a solution regarding the organization of the tournament. In fact, just about 2 months ago the Luxembourg Handball Federation took over this task and is organizing a good part of this event, with six teams. The second event with four teams will be held in Georgia. About a possible final match between the two winners the EHF will decide.
Ten-nations are taking part in this 2-event challenge, one of which is our National Squad. The following are the teams, divided into two groups
Group One, being played in Luxembourg, consists of England, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and Scotland while Group Two, which is being staged in Georgia, consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova.
The teams will arrive at their respective venue on Tuesday 23rd October, with the group matches played between the following Wednesday and Saturday. The final match will be played on Sunday 28th October.
The Maltese Contingent, formed by 16 players and 3 Officials, will also be leaving the island on the 23rd. The team is composed as follows:
Malta squad
Andrew Mifsud, Clinton Mifsud, Jacques Friggieri, Dennis Zammit, Andrew Said, Roberto Ragonesi, Philip Mifsud, Joseph Tanti, Ian Psaila, Christian McClean, Alec Invernizzi, Matthew Delicata, Orlando Bonnici, Mark Gilson, Christopher Galea, Christopher Magro.
The officials are Milos Stanisavljevic, coach, Karl Chetcuti, team manager, and Victor Zammit, head of delegation.
Malta had to meet Faroe Islands in their opening match yesterday. Today, they will be meeting Scotland. Tomorrow Malta faces the hosts, Luxembourg, while on Saturday it will be Ireland facing Malta. The final match is against England on Sunday.