Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1519405
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 APRIL 2024 NEWS thumbs down on Muscat's Premier league from the pundits new to Maltese football. The proposed format The Premier League currently consists of two rounds in which every team plays each oppo- nent twice, as a kind of 'home' and 'away' match. The club with the most points is crowned as champion. When two teams are tied in points, a decider match for champions or relegation is played. Under Muscat's proposed plan – surprisingly endorsed by the 14-team Malta Premier League association – 12 teams will compete in two phases, a win- ter championship and a spring championship. In the first phase, the 12 teams face each other in a round-robin format. At the end of the first round, the championship splits in two sections, featuring the top six teams in one and the remaining six teams in the other. The first-placed team in the top six section will be declared the winner of the winter cham- pionship, while the bottom two teams in the bottom six section will face relegation. The league however will re- sume with a second phase, the spring championship, where all teams again start from scratch, with no points carried from the winter championships. The same format of the winter cham- pionship will again be adopted, with all teams facing each other in a round-robin format, before being split into two sections of six teams each. If the top-placed side in the spring championship is the same as the one that topped the winter championship, they will be declared Malta champi- ons. If there are different teams winning each championship, UEFA's proposal of introducing a play-off final or final four will come to effect. Thumbs-down But the format has failed to find credible voices supporting the dismemberment of the cur- rent league format. "It will absolutely not help in- creasing attendance at matches. The format we had worked in the past and continues to work," says journalist Antvin Monsei- gneur. "This format absolutely crush- es any incentive to attend matches as a supporter, and to strive as a team during the first stage of the season. Why would they attend when there is noth- ing to play for? Whoever pro- posed the format is totally dis- tanced from the local football scene," he said. Monseigneur also said the for- mat will do nothing to elevate footballing quality in the coun- try. "It will kill football. Games will increase, therefore foreign players will also increase, and the quality of Maltese football players will also decrease," he said. The seasoned TVM sports journalist and commentator Sandro Micallef also remains unsure as to whether the format is itself sustainable beyond its opening 'winter' round. "I think it will attract support- ers to the stadium during the first season. It remains to be seen whether this will remain, and whether the format is sus- tainable. There are a lot of ques- tion marks on how it will work." What is sure is that no new league format will raise football- ing levels in the country. "We are stuck in a status quo, and we will remain there," Micallef said. Even former football cham- pions Carmel Busuttil and Joe Brincat think the simple Premier format that has been around for the larger part of footballing history, needs no complications added to it. "I don't really follow Maltese football much anymore, but I have to say that I cannot grasp as to why a simple football league format has to be rendered more complex," said Carmel Busuttil, the former Malta international who in 1988 joined Belgian side Genk as club captain and was the team's top scorer for three consecutive seasons. "As we can see, this year's league championship has natu- rally come to a decider format with Floriana and Ħamrun sep- arated by mere points and head- ing to a final clash. The same can be said for the teams facing rel- egation. So, something as simple as a championship league for- mat should not be changed for no reason at all." The former Malta and Ħamrun Spartans champion Joe Brincat also suggested the proposed MPL format was too complex for what is currently a simple league format. "If we want better attendances at the football stadium, my sug- gestion would be to reduce the number of teams playing in the Premier. I think it is currently overloaded with 14 teams. I'd say take the number of teams play- ing down to 10, if not eight, and have them play three rounds. Sometimes certain football teams from small villages have too few fans to bring to the sta- dium, but in a Floriana-Ħamrun clash you have massive support. So have them play three rounds for guaranteed gate money." Joseph MUscat (above) and (clockwise from left top) Antvin Monsigneur, Joe Brincat, Sandro Micallef and Carmel Busuttil