Holders not in action as Winter League starts today

Six teams will be taking part in the 2011 BOV Winter League which starts today with the first programme of matches at the National Pool, Tal-Qroqq.

With the arrival of new president Joe Caruana Curran, the ASA is looking to inject new life in its competitions, starting with the Winter League which this year culminates with an innovative best-of-three final series between May 11 and 15.

Sliema McDonald’s are the title holders after winning a tight encounter in a decisive clash against Neptunes Emirates in May last year.

Apart from these two giants of the local game, the other contenders will be Exiles Jet Services, Marsascala Solidbase, San Ġiljan Firetech and Sirens Ritter Sport.

A single round-robin league will be played and the first phase will be over by April 16.

The first- and fourth-placed and second- and third-placed teams will clash in the semi-finals on May 7.

There will be a play-off for fifth place contested by the two teams outside the top four and another match to determine third place between the losers in the semi-finals.

As in previous years, the ASA U-17 national team will also taking part in the Winter League but ‘out of the competition’ as regards results obtained.

This competition will be a valuable experience for the U-17 team due to take part in the LEN qualifying tournament, in Ukraine, between April 7 and 10. Malta’s opponents will be Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Czech Republic.

Sliema will not be in action this weekend but their title defence starts with a crunch match against sporting foes Neptunes tomorrow week. Today, the Reds will be figuring in another hot match as they play Balluta Bay rivals San Ġiljan.

The curtain-raiser to the 2011 Winter League will be contested by Marsascala and Exiles.

Meanwhile, the ASA recently announced that the rules governing foreign players have remained unchanged for 2011 and clubs may make use of foreign players in all age-group and senior competitions.

However, as from 2012, only those in the U-20 and senior competitions will be allowed to sign overseas players. The ASA added that next year no foreigners will be eligible to participate in the U-15 and U-17 competitions.

Today’s programme

4 p.m. Marsascala vs Exiles; 5.15 p.m. San Ġiljan vs Neptunes; 6.30 p.m. Sirens vs ASA U-17.