by As the new year unfolds, the footballing calendar promises packed hours of excitement. However, for the Maltese football fan in the stands, the player on the pitch, the coach by the touchline or a club’s administrative hierarchy, nothing this year will be as important as the decision of who will take over from Pierre Brincat in defining the next era in Malta’s Women’s Game.
Brincat Passes The Baton
The end of 2025 brought with it the end of a path under the direction of Pierre Brincat, and that marks 2026 as a huge year in the women’s game in Malta.
It was not a press release, but merely an announcement published in a post on the MFA Women’s Department Facebook page over the Christmas period that officially signalled that the chapter under Pierre Brincat’s leadership was brought to a close with his retirement. However, perhaps that is the way the former leader wanted it.
Having led the women’s national team of Malta to its first step in international waters, Pierre Brincat ultimately shed the coach’s hat in 2014 and donned a new one, that of the Director of the Women’s Game in Malta within the Malta Football Association.
While there will be time to dive deeper into Brincat’s tenures as coach and Director, it would do well to start 2026 by truly picturing the task at hand for whoever is filling this role. It may be that Brincat nominated his successor, or perhaps the Vice President responsible for the Women’s Game did so, but one expects that the ultimate blessing must of course come from the President of the Association, Bjorn Vassallo.
One thing’s for sure, whoever the Malta Football Association announces has the potential to shape the next decade into something that puts Malta in the highest ever level it has reached in football across men and women, or potentially squander a golden generation of players, coaches and enthusiastic club administrators alike.
The Role of Director
Efforts by The Sporting Fan throughout the past few months to obtain an exact organisational structure of the women’s sector proved unsuccessful. Thus, though there is no official explanation of what the Malta Football Association expects from its Director, if one were to follow the same ideological structure as the men’s (shown below), then one understands that the Director will be working hand in hand with the National Team coach, Manuela Tesse.
Hence, for all intents and purposes the role of the Director of Women’s Football is understood to be the highest administrative position in the women’s game.
If this holds, then the position of Director to lead the game in its day to day refers to someone who has to have the ability to understand and picture every facet of the game, not just pick the best to lead the technical side of it, but every one, from business to community, optics, and everything in between.
The arena sold is the football pitch and the entertainment produced on it, but behind it is an intricate web which needs a skilful weaver. As with any major undertaking, one needs resources: human, financial and infrastructural. It will be interesting to see how this next Director will handle the challenge of obtaining and harnessing those resources.
As with any leadership position, it will require the person to not only listen, but also have tough conversations and truly be a champion for the women’s game. Infallibility is impossible, except in utopian religions. This is football, a very different kind of religion. So, the courage to admit mistakes is one strong-suit of a leader, alongside a target to minimise them. So is the ability to unite a group of people who share a common passion for the game.
For a country whose Football Association has adulated the Italian Federation with its every move, it would do well to remember that, that country’s federation is being heavily scrutinised over the lack of work with clubs to truly develop its’ players and relying solely on clubs to set out the complete structure with no common vision.
For better or worse, there are just a handful of women’s teams in Malta – courtesy of a decision made during Pierre Brincat’s tenure – but within these teams there are passionate individuals and several who no doubt are putting the effort into what they deem to be the best path. However, the need for a common vision remains – for every project needs a leader.
Facing The Next Reality
Pierre Brincat’s tenure proved something important: The Maltese Islands – residentially composed of Malta and Gozo consisting of about half a million citizens – have talent. That much has been proven time and time again.
Should there be any doubt, then perhaps consider that this Tuesday Haley Bugeja will take to the pitch against Hibernians in a friendly, donning the shirt of Inter, and squarely marked as one of the top threats within a team of world class players. This is an Inter side gunning for a continuity within the top spots in Serie A and with sights on continued success in Europe.
However, considering the internationally established talent, Bugeja is not the first and certainly is not the only one in her generation. No, the Maltese Islands produced even more talent. Maria Farrugia is charging up with Bristol City as they push for promotion to the Women’s Super League, the fastest growing women’s league in the world. It is one being heavily invested in, giving it a trajectory that could make it is as unreachable as the men’s Premier League for other top footballing nations, should they not make the necessary decisions and fast.
Once again they are not the first to make a name internationally at club level. Rachel Cuschieri proved that time and time again. Maria Farrugia & Haley Bugeja are also not the only ones in the current generation and not the last.
However, there is one thing that is conveniently overlooked anytime these players are mentioned: Malta may have found them, but the development to reach their current level was done elsewhere.
Now, here is the catch, the rhetoric for any poor results for Malta that is still given to this day is that Malta (and its islands) are small and that the statistics do not favour it to produce world class talent. For the sake of being concise, that has been conveniently debunked by these players and it’s time to retire that rhetoric. The real question is, what if there’s more players already playing that could reach that level?
Rest assured while watching Hibernians against Inter, that Hibernians also have a crop of players in their ranks with that potential, as do the other clubs in Malta. The aim here is not to make a list, those following the game know exactly the kind of talent that is roaming about in established players and the untapped potential of several players who are in their first forays in the game. Pierre Brincat’s tenure as coach and later as the Director certainly asked the question of whether there’s talent in Malta and set in motion identification of great potential.
However, at this stage an even better question is: with the right structures, support and investment, how many others identified currently in the game would actually be at that level of Cuschieri, Bugeja & Farrugia? Can Malta’s islands develop enough players to their full potential to compete alongside its top players to truly go the next step and what does it require to do so?
Furthermore, how is it setting up the path to harness the know-how that the players who have come before them garnered throughout their career and give former players a chance to become the best possible in their next step in football after their playing career? Those are truly exciting questions.
So, will the new Director face that reality? That of figuring out how to produce the next vision that unites the strengths of those involved day to day with players, while bringing in the knowledge of those who have succeeded in developing talents, and translate this into concrete steps of action? Will they be able to inspire a generation to work for that common vision?
Will they be able to generate the necessary structure for a domestic league that produces a number of teams that can compete at top levels of Europe and one that entertains not only those on the Maltese shores, but also those abroad?
Will they be able to burst the bubble that still grips the women’s game and open it for a wider demographic?
Or will they have a completely different vision?
A foundation has been set by Brincat, but as listed above, the world of football is moving fast toward new horizons of professionalisation. The ability make bold decisions will be front and centre as this next year unravels.
Time will tell, but the strategic vision promised in 2023 is yet to materialise. Three years is equivalent to a whole strategy worth of work squandered. One hopes that a vision is presented, at least one that directs those involved towards a target.
As this generation of players rises, and the eyes over Malta grow from footballing fans and top brass across countries, one hopes that all can unite behind a visionary leader that aims to fulfil its overall potential. The scrutiny is no longer coming from the few individuals on the Islands.
However, all of this relies on the first decision that is in the hands of those leading the Association. They will show their ambitions in the game depending on who they name as the next Director of Women’s Football. All it requires is the fresh excitement brought by a formal announcement, dawning a new era. The direction of the era will be dependent on who that person will be.
The football fan in the stands waits with bated breath.
Lead Images: Brandon Bonett / Maraya Gauci / Malta FA
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Great post Eleanor.. ❤️🇲🇹❤️