The Malta FA has always attached utmost importance towards catering for its youth sector. This has been one of the association’s top priorities over the years.

Our national teams in the U-16, U-17 and U-19 categories have been engaged in several competitive and friendly tournaments, no doubt something which goes a long way towards providing our young footballers with the necessary international experience.

A competition which has been a fixture on the local calendar in this sector until recent years is the U-16 Friendly International Tournament, traditionally held during the Easter period.

This year such a tournament is scheduled to be held over five days, between the 16th and 20th March, with Italy, Eire and Turkey being hosted to participate in this quadrangular competition at the Ta’ Qali Training Grounds.

These three footballing nations are certainly amongst the foremost in Europe and their continental pedigree in this sector is undoubtedly rich.

These opponents will therefore provide our national U-16 team coach Oliver Spiteri with the opportunity to gauge his players’ qualities prior to the competitive commitment that lies ahead in the UEFA Championship of this category.

The programme at the MFA Training Grounds is as follows, with the first match starting at 11am and the second at 1pm.

Sunday 16 March: Italy v Republic of Ireland; Malta v Turkey

Tuesday 18 March: Italy v Turkey; Malta v Republic of Ireland

Thursday 20 March: Turkey v Republic of Ireland; Malta v Italy

Admission will be free.