The Malta Volleyball Association is busy this year planning a number of international tournaments besides an FIVB course Level 1 course , a number of youth coaching courses and a beach volley small countries tournament in September.

It has been entrused to organise no less that three international tournaments by the CEV leading up to the 2013 final of the Women Senior European Championships which will also be held in Malta.

The first of these tournaments will commence this evening. This will be held over three days, till next Sunday, at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

The national teams of Northern Ireland, Scotland, Cyprus and Malta will be participating in this tournament. Malta is represented by the youngest contingent of the group with most players still available for participation over the next two years in this competition.

Branko Vlahovic, MVA president said: “We are building a new generation of players, who took part in the COJI Games last May. That was their first international participation and this will be the next step in their development. We are aware of the difference in the ages of our players and their opponents but our aim is to give experience to our young squad. Our commitment towards youths continues - we think that we are investing in the future of the game in Malta.”

Girls’ training has intensified under the new national coach Dejan Desnica.  The association is continuing in the process of investing in juniors as this would be the third Junior European championships thenational team will be competing in.

Malta’s first game will be today against Northern Ireland with the local team meeting Scotland on Saturday and Cyprus on Sunday.

Game fixtures

Today 8.30pm Malta vs N. Ireland

Tomorrow 6pm Malta vs Scotland

Sunday 6 pm Malta vs Cyprus