MPFCA ask Malta FA to delay Premier League restart to January 17

Club delegates to meet MFA EXCO to discuss issue on Thursday

The Malta Professional Football Clubs Association (MPFCA) have made a request to the Malta Football Association to delay the restart of the Premier League by two weeks amid the rapid rise in positive COVID-19 cases among top-flight clubs.

During the last seven days, Malta has experienced a dramatic rise in the number of COVID-19 cases following the first cases of the Omicron variant in the country. This spurt in positive cases has inevitably brought with it an increase in people who are currently in quarantine, with reports saying that over 20,000 people are currently in isolation.

This situation has inevitably affected also the football community with the majority of the top-flight clubs having a significant number of first-team personnel who are currently either recovering after testing positive for COVID-19 or are serving a quarantine period.

In fact, at present much of the 12 teams in the Premier League have ended up with a very reduced number of players as they returned to training.

Earlier this week, the Malta FA has announced that the rescheduled Premier League clash between Balzan and Sliema Wanderers, which was due to be played on Thursday, has been postponed for the second time due to a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the Balzan squad.

The Maltese Premier League is due to continue after the Christmas festivities on January 8 but the MPFCA has written to the MFA and made a request to put back the league restart to January 17.

This request has been put forward after the majority of the Premier League clubs are pushing to delay the continuation of the top-flight championship by a fortnight.

The MPFCA is contending that the majority of the clubs will be unable to field a team for their next Premier League fixture on the second weekend of January due to a high number of players and members of the technical staff who will be still serving the mandatory quarantine.

The MPFCA said that this request is being made to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone involved as well as for the benefit of Maltese football.

Sources have told the Times of Malta that the MPFCA, which is represented by all the presidents of the Premier League clubs, will be meeting with the MFA Executive Committee on Thursday morning to discuss the issue.

Earlier this week, the Malta FA has already decided to delay the restart of its youth competitions by two weeks.

In fact, To ensure the safety of the young players and avoid a possible postponement pile-up, the Malta FA decided to postpone the resumption of youth competitions, namely the National Youth League, the Women’s Under 20 and the Women’s U-16 leagues to January 17.