Lack of training facilities and poor financial return among main reasons
The sport of futsal in Malta is set to suffer a severe blow as three clubs have decided not to register for the 2025-26 season, the Times of Malta can confirm.
Representatives from Swieqi United, Ħamrun, and Ta’ Xbiex have all confirmed their decision not to submit their names for the upcoming season – a decision that leaves just six teams competing in the coming domestic campaign and brings down the number of clubs taking part to four.
Among the major issues being mentioned behind the clubs’ decision to withdraw from competition are a lack of training facilities, the foreigners’ regulations used in domestic competitions, and a lack of financial return, which makes investment unsustainable.
The lack of training facilities is one problem that has been highlighted by all three clubs contacted by the Times of Malta.
Dylan Micallef, the former Swieqi United coach, said that it’s almost impossible for the majority of the clubs to attain a training slot at the National Sports School court, which incidentally hosts the Futsal Malta competitions.
“It’s almost impossible for the majority of the clubs to get any training time at the National Sports School,” Micallef said.
“We repute ourselves lucky to get a one-hour-and-30-minute slot once a week. This is because after 6pm, the time when our players are available for training, the schedule is taken by either the Luxol Basketball Club or the Luxol Futsal team.
“We ended up taking a training slot on Saturday, which is not ideal. The result is that we end up training in facilities that are smaller in their dimensions than a futsal court and which are equipped with a different kind of surface we play our competitive matches on.”
Former Ħamrun coach Kieran Bugeja shared the same kind of frustration.
“The lack of training facilities is killing our preparation,” Bugeja said.
“You don’t find anywhere where you can conduct a session at a decent time, as nobody will hire you a court before 9pm. Sometimes we even started sessions at 9.30pm!”
Christian Wismayer, of Ta’ Xbiex Futsal, said that his club never trained at the National Sports School.
“It’s impossible to find a ground to train in,” he said.
“In the last five years, we only trained once at the same venue where the National Championship is played, as there are never slots available for us.”
Another major problem that is hindering the club’s player development in futsal is the current regulations on overseas players.
According to the Malta FA and the Futsal Malta regulations, a club can field three foreign players if it has one U-21 homegrown player on the court.
However, all club representatives believe that the current regulations are hindering the clubs from becoming more competitive and mounting a more serious challenge to Luxol, who have won the league title in each of the last seven years.
“Last year, we proposed to open the foreign players’ market but it was turned down,” Micallef said.
“At the moment, the MFA is carrying the stance of providing passports to foreign players, either on sporting merit or on a five-year residency grounds. All these players are ending up playing for Luxol, who are the strongest from a financial point of view, given their sound investment in the last ten years, and success attained in European competition.
“But this gulf in financial strength between Luxol and the other clubs is inevitably stopping the other teams from strengthening their ranks and providing a stronger challenge to Luxol.
“We have no plan to stop Luxol from working the way they have been doing in the last years, but what we are proposing is to open the foreigners market so that clubs can bring in players of good quality to play in our league so that the level of play continues to grow and we attract more investors in the sport.”
Financial muscle
Bugeja admitted that Luxol’s financial strength is unmatched for any club in Malta.
“Luxol should be commended for the great success they attained in the UEFA Champions League but the authorities should look at the situation of the other clubs too,” Bugeja said.
“The league’s prize money is ridiculous. If you finish in second place in the league, the club receives €2,000 and that is way too little if you are harbouring of investing heavily to strengthen your team.
“Many times, the club representatives have to fork out money from their own pockets and hope to find a sponsor that can provide the money so we can present ourselves at the start of the season with a competitive team.”
Wismayer says competing in the futsal competitions has become financially unsustainable, and no investor is ready to invest if there is no return at some point.
“You can fork out as much money as you want, but the reality is that you expect very little in return in the current situation,” Wismayer said.
“The amount of money we receive for a top-three placing in the league is not even enough to fund hiring training facilities once a week for a whole season.
“A few months ago, our new club president thought about investing in futsal because our team has a good reputation in the sport.
“But once he saw how much money it would take to be competitive, he realized it wasn’t worth it. So, as a club, we decided to focus on other projects instead.
“It’s a sad story as the sport has been going back for several years now, and a lot of half measures taken have not helped the situation and the result of that is that clubs lose motivation and opt out.”
