Sponsors break with tradition and give trophy to Floriana to keep

It seems that what I have been saying all along, mainly through this column, has now been accepted by most, if not all, of our local football historians.

Cup football in Malta did not start in 1934 with the FA Trophy but on April 9, 1911 when Valletta United beat Msida United in the first round of the 1910-11 National Ground Cup. Since that day, many different trophies were presented to the winners of the Maltese cup competition.

In the early years, before the advent of the famous Cousis Shield, various cups donated by different sponsors were distributed to the winning team. These trophies were kept for good by the winners of the competition.

Thus we have 1910-11 the National Ground Cup, won by Floriana FC; 1911-12 the Mile End Cup, won by St George's FC, and 1912-13 the Gaelic Cup, also won by Floriana FC.

The Cousis Shield was presented to the Malta FA by the owner of the Cousis Cigarette Company at the end of the 1913-14 football season.

According to tradition, (no other documentation exists), it was laid out plainly in the rules that the trophy would continue to be used until all the ten plaques on it were filled by the names of the winners. The club winning the shield most times would then keep the trophy outright.

The imagination of the Maltese was captured by the size and intrinsic value of the shield. People just could not stop talking about the shield and it became everyone's dream to win the shield and keep it for posterity.

The Cousis Shield was first played for in 1913-14 but the competition was halted because of a dispute which was raging at the time between the clubs and the owners of the Mile End Sports Ground.

Between 1914 and 1931, when the last final was played, the shield was won as follows: Sliema Wanderers - 1918, 1920, 1924, 1926; Floriana FC - 1922, 1931; Valletta United - 1915, 1921; and St George's FC 1916, 1927.

When Floriana won the trophy in 1931, the era of the Cousis Shield came to an end. According to the agreement between the Malta FA and the donators, Sliema Wanderers, four times winners, should by right have kept the trophy but the owner of the Cousis Cigarette Company was a fervent Floriana supporter.

Breaking the rules, he donated the shield to the 'Irish' for safe keeping and that is where it rests to this day in the premises of the De Vilhena Band Club.

This is the gist of the story as it has been told to me.

Floriana supporters, however, have always denied that there was such an agreement between the Malta FA and the Cousis Company. They argue that Floriana being the last team to win the honour, were presented with the trophy by its owners.

The truth of the matter will probably never be established because the agreement, if it ever existed, was lost in the blitz during the war together with other important documents belonging to the association.