Preliminary round matches herald start of 2009 league

The 2009 BOV National Championship gets under way today when the opening matches from the preliminary round will be played at the National Pool.

The top four in the league - Sliema, Neptunes, Sirens and San Ġiljan - have already made their first appearance in the summer season last weekend.

Neptunes beat rivals Sliema 10-5 to lift the President's Cup while San Ġiljan needed extra-time to edge Sirens 6-5 and claim the Sportswriters' Association Cup.

There were significant changes in coaches for the top four clubs as champions Sliema will again be led by Croat Sergio Afric who returned to the Blues after a successful stay with Neptunes.

The Balluta Bay team acted quickly to replace the void left by Afric and engaged Paolo Malara.

The Italian is no newcomer to the game and his major successes came during his stint at Pescara with whom he won the Italian championship, the Champions Cup and the Super Cup.

Silvio Borg is no longer the coach of San Ġiljan and has now moved to Sirens. The Saints will be led by Marco Risso, another Italian. He is assisted by Karl Izzo.

The list of foreigners for these four teams also looks impressive.

Champions Sliema retained the services of Hungarian duo Otto Frikk and Raymond Fodor and also acquired the services of Bogdan Rath, a Romanian player who holds an Italian passport.

Neptunes have Aljosa Kunac and Leonardo Sottani, of Italy.

Kunac was a member of the Croatian team that won the World Championship in 2007 while Sottani made over 300 appearances for the 'Settebello'.

Sirens will have Alessandro Celia (Italy) and Amaurys Perez Sanchez (Cuba) in the team initially. Hungarian stars Attila Barany and Tamas Marcz, who played for the St Paul's Bay team last year, will join up later on.

Marcz is also expected to take a prominent role in the club's coaching set-up.

San Ġiljan have Serbian players Jugoslav Vascovic and Boris Popovic on their books while Matthew Zammit, who is currently involved in Serie A2 promotion play-offs with RN Imperia, will be available by the end of June.

On paper, Sliema, Neptunes, Sirens and San Ġiljan look a cut above the other five teams in the preliminary round, even though Exiles, under the shrewd guide of Joe Caruana Dingli, could well push for a place in the top-flight after their bright performances in the pre-season.

The first indications of Exiles's credentials will emerge from today's match against Neptunes as Sliema and Sirens should find little difficulty in having the better of Marsaxlokk and Marsascala respectively.

Otters and Ta' Xbiex are the other two teams in competition.

The preliminary round wraps up on July 4 when the top four teams in the standings qualify for Division One and the other five continue the season in Division Two.