Courtesy: Di-ve

Malta's debut in the 2007 Futsal UEFA Championship

by di-ve.com

Tuesday, 16 January, 2007

Malta's participation in international teams competitions organised by UEFA at 'A', Under-21 and Youth levels and also in the Senior Women's category, besides that in Club competitions, has definitely consolidated the name of our country as one of UEFA's Member Associations with an extensive presence in Continental competitions.

The only missing link, apart from the competition for the Women's national junior teams, was the UEFA Futsal Championship for nations.

Now this absence will also be a thing of the past as Malta is set to make its debut on the European circuit when 12 nations will compete in the preliminary round of the 2007 Futsal UEFA Championship between Thursday and Sunday.

The stage is set for three mini-tournaments of four teams each, with the winners of each group and the best two second-placed teams to take on the 23 top nations in the qualifying rounds later on in the year.

To generate more interest among the Maltese in this preliminary round, the Group 'C' matches will be played in Malta, with our national team playing Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Georgia.

The venue will be the AS Hibernians Pavilion, Corradino, kindly put at the disposal of the MFA by Hibernians FC.

After being instrumental in having a Maltese team, Hibernians, competing in Europe at Futsal club level, the MFA has laid the groundwork for the debut of the National Team.

A coach was appointed and the choice fell on the Czech, Michel Striz, who was in charge of the Czech national team for seven years until 2005, in the process leading his country to third place in the 2003 European Futsal Championship.

Since taking up the job as Malta's coach, Striz has been fully engaged in overseeing the competitive set-up of the Futsal domestic competitions, monitoring the players for eventual inclusion in the national squad and conducting regular training sessions. This has been done in collaboration with the MFA Technical Centre.

The MFA Futsal Committee, under the chairmanship of MFA vice-president, John Farrugia and secretary, Mario Gauci, is responsible for the organisation of Futsal competitions in Malta.

Months of preparation of the national team squad will hopefully bear positive results for Malta later on this week, with qualification for the qualifying rounds being our target.

This will be a new venture for the Maltese football fans, one which gives them the opportunity to give our team the full backing in what promises to be a warm atmosphere at the Corradino Pavilion. This support should help Malta perform with honour.

The schedule of matches is as follows:

Thursday, 18 January
4.30pm Georgia v Kazakhstan
6.30pm Malta v Cyprus

Friday, 19 January
4.30pm Cyprus v Georgia
6.30pm Malta v Kazakhstan

Sunday, 21 January
4.30pm Kazakhstan v Cyprus
6.30pm Georgia v Malta

The following 20 players form part of the preliminary squad from which the final list will be chosen:

Goalkeepers: Bjorn Vassallo, Benny Gialanze, Jonathan Pisani, Ian Farrugia.

Defenders: Nicholas Bilocca, John Cutajar, Mark Ellul Sullivan, Michael Portelli, George Taliana, Jeanbert Gatt.

Forwards: Tyron Borg, Noel Bray, Alvin Cacciattolo, Roderick Caruana, Robert Magro, Roberto Micallef, Nebojsa Mijailovic, Branko Pantelic, Paul Bugeja, Rene Sciberras.


UEFA Officials: D. Janosevic (Croatia), R. Lobo (Czech Republic), B. Sorescu (Rumania), R. Katanic (Serbia)

Tournament Director: Charles Ronlez (Belgium)

UEFA Delegate: P. Galan Nieto (Spain)

Referee Observer: S. Tivold (Slovenia)

Timekeeper: Alex Arena (Malta)




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com