by Having led a first joint press conference featuring both national team coaches, Manuela Tesse & Emilio De Leo, President of the Malta Football Association, Bjorn Vassallo, responded to queries on ushering in a new era along with a new Association strategy. He underlined the efforts to back the bolder ambitions by creating a structure to lift the level across the entire pathway to senior level, across both female and male sectors.
“The Principles For Both Sectors Are The Same”
Last Tuesday presented a first joint press conference pushing one front for Malta’s national football teams. The Malta Football Association President, Bjorn Vassallo, spoke alongside national team coaches, Manuela Tesse and Emilio De Leo discussing ambitions, setups and objectives for the two streams.
It came on the back of an announcement made in November of last year, where the Association revealed that it was conducting an evaluation of the national teams’ coaching staff, together with holding discussions on the introduction of a new Association strategy. The strategy is expected to have technical projects at its core, but is yet to be announced.
However, during Tuesday’s press conference the Association made its first step to publish the new technical staff setups for both the women and men’s national teams at every competitive age group.
On the other hand, questioned by The Sporting Fan, Bjorn Vassallo rejected that this ushered in a new era for Maltese football which strengthens the two sectors together under one Association strategy, but maintained that it is merely a continuation of the Association’s works.
“There is always the collective will, intent and hope to do better in terms of performances and results at the start of a new international competition for both men and women.”
“The objectives for both men’s and women’s national teams for 2025, the Association’s steadfast commitment to strengthen both selections and ensure that they have the best conditions possible to prepare for their international commitments, were on the agenda of this week’s media event where Emilio De Leo and Manuela Tesse, the coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams respectively, were both present.”
When it comes to the preparations of the national teams and player welfare, the principles for both men’s and women’s teams are the same.
Tailoring The Pathway & Setting Ambitious Goals
On the other hand, Bjorn Vassallo explained that the pathway for boys and girls to get to senior level vary to accommodate the inherent differences between the two sectors. He said, “The Association adopts a tailor-made approach vis-a-vis the pathway from grassroots to elite owing to the fact that the men’s and women’s football ecosystems domestically are different.”
However, he underlined that the Association does not distinguish between men and women in its search to provide every team with the most competent coaches.
He continued, “We rely on experts in both sectors, competent coaches, both local and foreign, and professionals to carry out the various projects and initiatives. This is done in sync with the Association’s Technical Centre which supports both sectors through a national curriculum, and the Inhobb il-Futbol Foundation which was created in 2021 as one of the pillars of the first ever Malta FA strategy.”
Bjorn Vassallo was positive about the strides made in the years since he rose to lead the Malta Football Association, but reiterated that the entity is aiming higher, “For the past five years, the Malta FA has clearly left no stone unturned in our efforts to improve the level of both the men’s and women’s national teams across all age-groups. Despite the challenges and difficulties caused by extraordinary circumstances, I firmly believe that significant progress has been made, but as I stressed on Tuesday, we are setting higher objectives because we are always striving to do better.”
Lead Image: Malta FA
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