Maltese football league system

The Maltese football leagues system of association football is made up of a set of leagues organised and controlled by the Malta Football Association. Malta has had a top level football division since 1909, it continues on today with the current system.

Old system

Currently the system includes 4 tiers. All of the leagues are currently sponsored by Bank of Valletta:

Level League/Division
1 Maltese Premier League
10 clubs
2 Maltese First Division
10 clubs
3 Maltese Second Division
10 clubs
4 Maltese Third Division
21 clubs in two groups

Premier League

The Maltese Premier League is probably most criticised for a format that is similar to that of the Scottish Premier League, where the league is split up into two phases, a first one with two rounds (home and away – formally, since the league is played within 3 or 4 stadiums only), and the second phase accommodates a split of the 12 teams into a Championship Pool (top 6 teams) and the Relegation Pool (bottom 6 teams).[1][2] Also, a particular characteristic of the Maltese Premier League is that once the split takes place, the points gathered in the previous two rounds, are halved, supposedly to create more competition.[3][4]

Other competitions

In parallel to these leagues run a number of Knock Out competitions, the most prominent one being the FA Trophy.

New Format

On January 13, 2011, the Malta Football Association decided to restructure the format of the leagues as from season 2011–12.[5]

Thus the system in force from season 2011–12 came to read:

Level League/Division
1 Maltese Premier League
12 clubs
2 Maltese First Division
12 clubs
3 Maltese Second Division
14 clubs
4 Maltese Third Division
15 clubs

2014/15-present

Level

League(s)/Division(s)

1

Maltese Premier League
12 clubs

↓↑ 2-3 clubs

2

Maltese First Division
14 clubs

↓↑ 3 clubs

3

Maltese Second Division
14 clubs

↓↑ 3 clubs

4

Maltese Third Division
13 clubs

There are hopes in the future that Gozitan clubs from the Gozo Football League First Division and the Gozo Football League Second Division may enter the Maltese Leagues in order to have an opportunity of playing in Europe.

See also

References

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