Luke Dimech recently celebrated his 50^th international cap for country. But hands up who can name another Maltese player, and what if anything do we know about the game in Malta?

Well we thought we would ask the question of Alex Vella and his colleagues at the Malta FA., to whom we send our special thanks. His report is broken down into two parts.

FOOTBALL IN MALTA

Ta'Qali National Stadium

Malta is a small island with a population of approximately 400,000 inhabitants, a figure comparable to that of a medium-sized city in the UK. As such, its potential of producing footballers in sufficient numbers who can make the grade at high levels of competition is limited.

These demographic constraints work against the country's chances of grooming quality players capable of holding their own whenever they venture abroad to seek new pastures. Consequently, there is a stigma which devalues the Maltese footballer in the eyes of potential suitors, whatever his qualities are.

In this context, it has to be kept in mind that there are only 51 teams in the four MFA Divisions in Malta, all sponsored by BOV (Bank of Valletta). Ten teams form the Premier Division League and ten the First Division League. The Second and Third Divisions are made up of 12 and 19 teams respectively, with the third tier being divided into two sections of ten and nine teams each.

National Team

Given that the national team is picked from scant resources, Malta's aspirations on the international platform cannot be too high, even if the commitment to improve the team's global standings is always a priority on the Malta FA's agenda.

This commitment has reaped some dividends, and a number of positive results went some way towards enhancing the image of the game on the George Cross Island. Recent draws against Croatia and Bulgaria, and lately against Turkey, together with a victory over Hungary towards the end of last year, all in competition, are cases in point.

In the last quarter of a century, respect towards Maltese football has grown. During this period Malta only lost by the tiniest of margins to the likes of Holland, 0-1, West Germany, 2-3, Italy, 1-2, Spain, 2-3 and Sweden, 1-2 and 0-1, besides two away 2-2 draws against Hungary and Portugal. In 1971 England only managed a 1-0 away victory over the Maltese. All these matches were in World Cup or Euro qualification matches.

Of course, there have also been defeats for the boys in Red in the 291 international matches played by Malta to date. A statistical analysis has revealed improved results and better goal-scoring rates in these last years. Records also show that Carmel Busuttil, with 23 goals, Michael Mifsud and David Carabott, with 13 each, are topping Malta's all-time scorers' list.

As for Malta's campaign in the Euro 2008 Championship group matches, certain pre-set objectives have already been reached. These were to surpass their previous highest points' tally and to score more goals than ever before in group matches. With ten matches played and two to go, they have collected five points and scored nine goals, which is currently almost one goal per match.Reaching these benchmarks was encouraging for Malta and also an incentive to keep improving.

Alex Vella

MFA Media Communications Officer