As the Bank of Valletta Premier League campaign came to an end the past weekend, City coach Jesmond Zerafa and his champions are now eyeing the FA Trophy to make it a most memorable year.
For Zerafa, it has already been a splendid start to his era at Valletta where, in the 1990s, he had been one of their prominent strikers. Winning the title also as a coach is something which is not easy to come by, but at Valletta, he has found the right ingredients – from the administration, his technical staff and those on the field of play, that is, the players.
Success breeds success and that is why the citizens are now aiming to have a serious go at the Trophy. They have been invincible in the league – they have remained unbeaten throughout the 28-match campaign – and, quite rightly, they believe they can achieve an FA Trophy success, therefore remaining unbeaten.
The citizens have been in a class of their own this season. They dominated from the start of the competition and went on to win the title in the most convincing of manners.
As things look at present, it seems that another Valletta FC era has started and I firmly believe it will take quite some time for any other club to wrest the title from the citizens, unless they start thinking otherwise.
It is evident that Valletta’s decision to have their players registered on a professional or semi-professional basis has worked out exceptionally well, although at quite a cost. And although on most occasions, their football was far from impressive, they always got the result they wanted from each match they played.
Unless the other clubs like Floriana, Birkirkara, Sliema and Hibernians follow suit and operate in the same way as Valletta are doing at present, they will not be able to match the citizens and will have to accept to play second fiddle all the time.
Valletta are bound to become even stronger if two main ideas of president Victor Sciriha materialise.
The first is their progress in the forthcoming Champions League preliminary stages. If the Citizens are able to move at least into the third round, then that would provide a substantial financial return from the UEFA coffers which, in turn, will enable the club to continue investing in better players from abroad.
The major difficulty lies on how many ‘class’ players on the list wanted by the Citizens would really accept to come and play in the Maltese Premier League.
The citizens have accepted that they made mistakes last year and this year on some foreign player signings. Sciriha even went on to say that it had also been a mistake to employ a foreign coach as was the case last season when the title was won by Birkirkara.
The second idea is that of Valletta FC having their own stadium. The site is at Hal-Farrug. Even if not so close to Valletta, it is not far away either.
Such a project will help the club to generate more money in future and that, in Sciriha’s opinion, would help to make Valletta’s financial position more stable. In a few words, his intention is that of turning Valletta into a self sufficient company.
It is a great initiative which should be encouraged, but on the other hand, I must also say that with just one team moving in this direction, it may not help to make Maltese football more interesting.
In one way, we will have a repeat of the experience we passed through this season. In fact, I think we had two different leagues this season. Valletta were playing on their own for the title – that is probably why at times it was boring to watch their matches – while four other teams fought it out for the second and third spots.
Maltese football clubs certainly need financial assistance from wherever it may come, but it is a fact that they also need more persons like Victor Sciriha, not just to assist financially, but to move forward with good and fruitful ideas.
I am sure we would see a much better standard of football on this island if clubs are able to lure such persons to their ranks.