“Need to keep strengthening the sense of patriotism, and remain committed to raise the level of the local game” Bjorn Vassallo – MFA Gen. Sec.

As the Malta FA launched ticket sales for the upcoming home EURO 2016 qualifiers against Norway and Italy, MFA General Secretary, Bjorn Vassallo insisted that there is a need to keep strengthening the sense of patriotism for all that is Maltese and that the association remained fully committed to raising the level of the local game across the board.  “The national team is very much at the heart of the MFA’s work as much as it is at heart with the general public. and, although positive results have eluded us over the past 12 months, the performances in the opening Euro 2016 Group H match against Croatia (0-2) and the preceding warm-up against Slovakia (0-1) are very encouraging.” said Vassallo “We were coming from a disappointing defeat in a friendly against Gibraltar,” Vassallo said.  “Critics have compared us to Iceland who reached the World Cup play-offs but their football project started 20 years ago whereas we only launched ours in 2012.” “They also mentioned Cyprus and their 2-1 away win against Bosnia but last year, Malta also gained a 1-0 win away to Armenia. “Cyprus have a professional league and we are still amateurs. Our target is that a number of the top clubs in the Premier League switch from part- to full-time. Vassallo added that the Gibraltar match was useful as it served as an opportunity for the U-21 players to integrate into the senior squad with some of them playing in the last two games and left a good impression. When asked about the results of the second issue of the GOAL CARD, Norman Saliba,  MFA’s Head of Marketing said “The second edition of the GOAL CARD was another success with the majority of the previous World Cup Card buyers opting to buy the Goal Card for the EURO 2016 Qualifiers, along with a considerable number of new buyers”. Saliba added that MFA is seeing the GOAL CARD as a consolidation of its aim to grow its Fan Loyalty Programme and is working on launching the GOAL CARD CLUB which will be intended to give preference and offer benefits to its members when it comes to future purchases  and activities related to our national team and more. “This initiative along with expanding the Digital and Social Media activiites to new dimensions as well as the introduction of the Football Relations Management (FRM) concept, will help build a new relationship with local football fans. A relationship which is aimed at generating further enthusiasm for local football, not only at National team level, but also for the domestic competitions” said MFA’s Head of Marketing. Asked about the prospects of having large crowds for the October matches, Norman Saliba said that “the Malta v Norway match is attracting a considerable amount of visiting fans.. In fact the MFA has already issued 1500 tickets  with 1300 of which have already been confirmed as sold. The Italy match will definitely arouse huge interest amongst local football followers and hopefully we will have another sell out”