The Malta Cup tournament which comes to an end with the final at the Portomaso Conference Centre this evening was the talking point for most of the local sports followers throughout the past week.

As usual, it attracted the top world’s players with the exception of Ronnie O’Sullivan, but what was new this year was the format.

Because of the fact that this year’s event was not a ranking tournament, the organisers, Snooker Promotions Malta, decided to alter the format, preferring a round robin event in the qualifying stages rather than the knock out system which is normally used in the ranking events.

This change has its pros and cons but, in my opinion, the Malta tournament proved to be a success. In fact, I believe World Snooker would do well to make some considerations over whether it could become the norm in all events in future, though with more changes.

The world body will, first of all, have to seek the opinion of the players themselves to see whether they are in agreement with such a format. It is a fact that not all of them seemed pleased to be playing such a number of matches as they had to play in Malta, although if it was a ranking event and the prize money was better, I think they would have thought otherwise.

For the organisers, it was an absolutely new experience which must have encouraged them to organise more similar tournaments in future.

The fact that each player needs to play at least four matches over such a format makes it more of an attraction to the public.

However, this year, the locals were missing from the playing hall. With extensive TV coverage given on both Eurosport and Melita Cable, it was obvious that the public preferred to stay watching comfortably at home, despite missing the atmosphere which the Portomaso Hilton Conference Centre offers.

Most of those who attended the matches were foreigners who had booked their tickets online.

Having met quite a few of them and some locals, I asked them their opinion on this format and most of them seemed to prefer it than the KO system, whereby they could see their favourite player in action for just one match and returning home very quickly.

One thing which the world body has to improve upon if this current format had to be retained is the number of qualifiers from each group. I believe that having the first two players qualifying from each group, with a quarter-final line-up, the semi-finals and the final, would pose a much more attractive proposition, apart from generating more interest among the players themselves.

It may have been true that some of the players did not show the usual determination and interest, especially when it became evident that they were on the way out. Near the end, there were those matches in which the two players involved had no further interest at all. Unfortuantely, on such occasions, as in other sport, such occurrences are unavoidable.

But, on the whole, everyone must agree that we all had a very enjoyable week watching some excellent snooker from most of the players concerned.

The main disappointment came from local hero Tony Drago who failed to win at least one of his four matches although, one must admit that he was quite unlucky on some occasions.

The other Maltese competitor, wild card Alex Borg, fared slightly better as he managed to get a point from a 3-3 draw against Ryan Day in his last game of the qualifying round.

Whether or not this format is to be retained in future or whether the tournament is to return to its previous knock out system, the most important thing is that the tournament will return to Malta next year. And this can only be achieved with the help of everyone, starting from the authorities and all those involved in one way or another.

The football tournament

It was a real pity that due to several circumstances, the football tournament organised by the MFA this year was not well patronised by local supporters.

Just a few hundreds turned up on the three days of the tournament and this certainly did not help the cause, either of the MFA, which must have spent quite a hefty amount to bring over the three visiting teams, and neither our own national team, which did not get the deserved support from the terraces. In this sense, that is spectator-wise, the tournament was a flop.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Maltese sports fans are becoming choosey and they are making it clear that they prefer to go and support the team only when a competitive match is on.

Moreover it is also becoming evident that matches screened live on TV certainly do not help to increase the number of spectators at the stadium.

To be fair, it must also be said that Belarus, Armenia and Iceland cannot be considered as attractive teams and no one must have expected large crowds for these matches.

However, one thing was positive. National coach Dusan Fitzel was able to play most, if not all, the members of the squad at his disposal.

It was certainly a useful opportunity for the coach to assess some of his players, especially those who are relatively new in the squad.