The quadrangular tournament being held on Friday 30 December at the national stadium, Ta’ Qali, should prove to be a football spectacle.

Two Maltese Premier League teams - Hibernians and Qormi - as well as Italy’s Serie A team Cagliari and Serie B leaders Torino will be taking part in the tournament with matches of 45 minutes duration.

The event was launched yesterday afternoon at the Portomaso Casino. It is being sponsored by portomasolive.com, a subsidiary company of Tumas Group, main sponsors of Qormi FC.

Norman Saliba, Head of Marketing of the Malta Football Association, said an invitation to all the Premier League clubs had been issued and it was Hibernians and Qormi who had eventually accepted to take part, according to the established criteria .

The two Italian teams will be holding a training camp in Malta and the tournament is being held midway through their stay here.

Saliba said the tournament is the result of the excellent training facilities provided by the MFA. He thanked Yorgen Fenech of Tumas Group for the company’s acceptance to be the sponsors of the tournament, as well as the Malta Tourism Authority for its support, thus helping to promote Malta through the event.

Jonathan Gregory and Anthony Farrugia, of portomasolive, both said they were glad that the company had been given this opportunity by the MFA and augured success to the Maltese teams.

Stephen Abela, on behalf of Hibernians, thanked the sponsors and the MFA for their support, adding that the club was honoured to be selected as one of the participants.

Marco Ciantar, on behalf of Qormi FC, said this will be a prestigious tournament and urged the club’s fans to attend in their usual large numbers.

A team of eight Maltese referees will be controlling the matches. Qormi do not expect to have any new players among their ranks for this tournament, but Hibernians are expected to include at least one new foreigner.