Local champions Valletta FC will host Serie A side and Coppa Italia holders Inter in a lucrative friendly at the National Stadium, Ta’ Qali, on 21 August.
The news was revealed yesterday by Valletta FC president Victor Sciriha during a press conference at the Mare Blu offices in Valletta.
The conference was planned to announce the staging of the Mare Blu Cup clash between Valletta and Hamrun Spartans, now an annual match, to be played next Thursday.
It will be the fourth time Inter are visiting Malta. Earlier, they had played against the same Valletta and Floriana in the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup respectively. They had also played against a Malta Selection on the occasion of the inauguration of the Millennium Stand at the national stadium.
This season, Inter are trained by new coach GianPiero Gasperini, formerly of Genoa. He has substituted Leonardo who left the nerazzurri to take the post of sporting director of French club Paris St Germain.
The match will also be the last friendly for Inter before the Italian league gets under way.
Sciriha said Inter will be arriving in Malta on the morning of 21 August, play the match in the evening and then go back home soon after the end of the match.
The City president said the Inter visit was an honour for Valletta FC, but it will prove to be expensive. Despite that, he promised that tickets will be reasonably priced. He said: “They will start from €25 to an Enclosure maximum of €35. We wish to have a capacity crowd at the Stadium on this important occasion for Maltese football.”
Sciriha also thanked MFA CEO Bjorn Vassallo for the way the association is helping the clubs.
Hamrun vice president Gaetano Debattista also thanked Vassallo and the MFA for the help in the improvement of facilities at the Victor Tedesco Stadium in Hamrun, where new stands are being constructed. “It is true that the work will probably not be concluded in time for the season opening, but it is equally true that the MFA is putting aside its interests to give the clubs much needed support,” he added.