Maltese Futsal League

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The Maltese Futsal League, (Maltese: il-Lig tal-Futsal Malti), known as the Gatorade League for sponsorship reasons, is the official futsal league in Malta. It was founded in 2011 and is currently sponsored by Gatorade. The Maltese futsal championship currently consists of 14 teams. It is organised by the and the Malta Football Association. Prior to a decrease in teams, the league used to be known as the Maltese Futsal Premier Division, which was the highest tier, with a promotion and relegation system tied to the Maltese Futsal First Division.

The league is played entirely in the Corradino Sports Pavilion.^[1]

History[]

Futsal has been officially played since 1998.^[2] The league started in 1999 when three University students, who had organized the unofficial Dr. Stanley's Workshop five-a-side league, contacted the Malta FA.^[3] were the first well-documented league winner of any Maltese futsal championship. The club won two titles in a row, for the season 2000-01 and 2001-02.^[4]

The league was created in 2011. The highest peak saw 4 divisions with over 70 teams. Teams started decreasing when the made requirements more stringent to make the league more professional.

Eventually, with a further decrease in teams, only one division was necessary, which became known as the Maltese Futsal League, as of the 2015–2016 season.

Champions[]

Key

Season	Champions (titles)	Runners-up	League winner	Top league scorer
				Player (Club)	Nat.	Goals
(1st)	unknown
(2nd)	(1)
(3rd)	(2)
(4th)	(1)		(group A) (gr. B)
(5th)	(1)		(group A) (group B)
(6th)	(1)		(Group A) (Group B)
(7th)	(1)		(Group A) (Group B)
(8th)	Jeepers Handyman Centre (1) †		Jeepers Handyman Centre (Group A) (Group B)
(9th)	(1) †
(10th)	(1)	Jeepers Handyman Centre
(11th)	ZC Excess (1) †
(12th)	ZC Excess (2)		ZC Excess	Jovica Milijić (Paola Downtown)	SRB	42
(13th)	Excess RP Bidnija (3) †		Excess RP Bidnija
(14th)	(2)
(15th)	(1)			(Zurieq)	MLT	47+
(16th)	Luxol (1) †		Luxol	William da Silva Barbosa (Luxol)	BRA
(17th)	Valletta (1) †
2016–17 (18th)	Luxol (2) †			(Valletta)	BRA	75
2017–18 (19th)	Valletta (2)	Luxol	Luxol
2018–19 (20th)	Luxol (3) †	Valletta
(21st)	season declared null and void due to Covid-19 pandemic
(22nd)

Performance by club[]

2016–2017 season[]

In the 2016–17 season, the FMA reopened to independent teams not part of a football club from within the Maltese football league system.

Format[]

There are 14 teams which shall play each other once. After this round, the teams split into the top 6 teams, known as the Elite pool, and the remainder play in the Division One pool. The Elite teams play each other once again and the first 4 after this round, enter a knockout playoff stage. The winner of the playoff stage enters the cup.

Teams[]

• Ħamrun Tre Angeli
• Marsascala Futsal
• Pieta SS Nordiska
• Qormi Futsal
• Luxol Futsal
• Swieqi Utd Futsal
• Swieqi Utd Under 21 Futsal
• University of Malta Students' Futsal Team
• Junior College
• Valletta Futsal

References[]

External links[]

• Futsal Malta Association
• Malta Football Association