It's the dream of every Maltese athlete to have a successful career away from our shores. Unfortunately, Malta being a small island cut off from the European mainland, the chances for Maltese sportsmen to fulfil their ambitions are slim.
However, all this can change for Maltese basketball players after the Malta Basketball Association (MBA) reached an agreement with the Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro (FIP), permitting Maltese citizens to have the same status as home players. This agreement allows Italian clubs to have one Maltese player in their squad, regardless of the number of non-Italian players in their ranks.
Details of this significant accord were given to the media by MBA president Antonio Mizzi.
"It's certainly a huge boost for the game of basketball in Malta," Magistrate Mizzi said yesterday.
"I have no doubt that Maltese basketball will reap huge dividends from this agreement as it gives our players the opportunity to prove themselves in a professional environment such as the Italian league.
"It's a known fact that the level of our domestic leagues is poor and the best way for our players to improve themselves is by competing abroad."
Local clubs' concern
"Some clubs have expressed concern over this agreement as they fear that they will lose their best players," Mizzi added. "However, I want to make it clear that we are committed to protecting our clubs.
"In fact, we have just approved a regulation whereby players who return from a spell in Italy will be obliged to rejoin their former Maltese clubs. Competition rules also stipulate that players be contracted to their clubs up to the age of 26. If a player is older than 26, he/she still would have to play for at least one other season with their former Maltese club on returning to local competitions."
The first Maltese player set to benefit from this agreement is pivot Josephine Grima. The 20-year-old has joined Sicilian club Acer Priolo from Malta champions Depiro.
At Priolo, she will be reunited with Malta coach Santino Coppa who considers Grima as the ideal replacement for injured Romanian player Florina Pascalau.
For Grima, this will be her second experience in the Italian league after last season she helped Virtus Basket Siracusa win promotion to Serie B.
Meanwhile, Grima this evening will be in the Maltese squad that will face Bosnia in a European Championship qualifier at Ta' Qali (7 p.m.). Today's match is the first of three for Coppa's girls over the next seven days.
After today's game, the women's team travel to Belarus to play the host nation on Tuesday before returning to Malta where they will take on Norway on Friday at 7 p.m.
The MBA president reckoned that the Maltese team face three tough matches in the coming days but he is convinced that our players will gain valuable experience in view of next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
In Australia, the women's team will play New Zealand, Nigeria and Malaysia in a round-robin qualifying group that starts on March 17.
Due to the women team's commitments in the Commonwealth Games, the National League, which will be sponsored for the second consecutive year by Michael Attard Ltd, local importers of Peugeot cars, will be played over a shorter period of time.
Frank Camilleri, the MBA secretary, said that the women's league will run from October 21 until the last week of February when the play-off finals will be played.
Following the end of the league, the women's team, under the charge of Italian coach Coppa, will have a five-week training programme ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
The women's season will then resume in April with matches from the BoV KO, the MBA Shield and the Louis Borg Cup competitions.