The Maltese football leagues system of association football is made up of a set of leagues organised and controlled by the

Malta Football Association The Malta Football Association (MFA; mt, Assoċjazzjoni tal-Futbol ta' Malta) is the governing body of football in Malta. The Association organises the Maltese Football League and several other competitions, including a knockout competition ...

. Malta has had a top level football division since 1909; it continues on today with the current system.

Previous Formats

Pre-2011/12 Format

This system included four tiers. All of the leagues are currently sponsored by Bank of Valletta: The Maltese Premier League is probably most criticised for a format that is similar to that of the Scottish Premier League, where the league is split up into two phases, a first one with two rounds (home and away – formally, since the league is played within three or four stadiums only), and the second phase accommodates a split of the 12 teams into a Championship Pool (top six teams) and the Relegation Pool (bottom six teams). Also, a particular characteristic of the Maltese Premier League is that once the split takes place, the points gathered in the previous two rounds, are halved, supposedly to create more competition. In parallel to these leagues run a number of Knock Out competitions, the most prominent one being the FA Trophy.

2011-12 to 2017/18 Format

On January 13, 2011, the

decided to restructure the format of the leagues as from season 2011–12. Thus the system in force from season 2011–12 came to read:

2017/18 to 2019/20 Format

Once again, the

decided to restructure the format of the leagues. As from the season 2017/18, the

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as BOV Premier League for sponsorship reasons with Bank of Valletta ( colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Football Associa ...

started having 14 clubs competing at the top level of

Maltese football Football in Malta is run by the Malta Football Association and was introduced to Malta during British rule in the mid-19th century. The sport at the time was new to England, and was used as a means of entertainment for the soldiers stationed in M ...

. For the first time in decades, the

started having two rounds, each team playing the other twice, and not splitting the points in half at any stage. Thus from the season 2017/18, the format was changed to as follows: The main noticeable change in format was the introduction of a promotion-relegation play-off to take place across all the leagues in Malta. The 12th place team in each league was to play a one-match decider at a neutral ground against the team that finishes in 3rd place of the lower league. The winner of the decider was to take its place in the higher league in the following season.

Current format

Following the early end of the 2019/20 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the beginning of the 2020-21 season saw a radically altered system, particularly for the divisions beneath the second tier, and changes to the names the divisions were given. The Premier League saw an increase to sixteen clubs with four automatic relegation places and a relegation play-off for whichever team finishes in twelfth place. The First Division was renamed as the Challenge League and saw an increase to fifteen clubs taking part with the two teams finishing in first and second gaining automatic promotion and the third placed team facing off against the twelfth placed team from the Premier League in a play-off to decide on who plays in the Premier League the following season. The bottom five teams will all be relegated to the tier below. The biggest changes came from the restructuring of the Second and Third Divisions as they were merged into a single entity called the National Amateur League. The twenty-two clubs in this league are split into three groups with the winners of each gaining automatic promotion to the Challenge League. The nine teams in second to fourth in each of these groups enter a nine-team play-off with the winner gaining promotion to the Challenge League. There are still hopes in the future that Gozitan clubs from the

Gozo Football League First Division The Gozitan First Division, known for sponsorship reasons as the BOV GFL First Division, is the top division of the Gozo Football League, the league competition for men's football clubs in Gozo. The GFL First Division is played on three roun ...

and the

Gozo Football League Second Division The Gozo Football League Second Division, known as BOV GFL Second Division for sponsorship reasons, is the second and lowest level in the Gozo Football League. The league was first competed in 1948. The Second Division is played in the same mann ...

may enter the Maltese Leagues and create a single competition for all the Maltese Islands and give the Gozitan teams the opportunity to compete in European competitions. There are also discussions going on over a potential re-structuring of the amateur football leagues in Malta and create a pyramid system as opposed to a series of single leagues.

References

External links

Maltafootball.com – newsMalta Football Association website
- Maltese football league tables, records & statistics database. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maltese Football League System

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...