The Malta Handball Association will be hosting the 2011 European Challenge Trophy this weekend when the country’s Under-23 selection will be playing against their counter-parts from Azerbaijan, Moldova and Scotland at the University Sports Hall, Tal-Qroqq.
MHA president Louis Borg told a news conference yesterday that the competition represented an excellent opportunity for pro-mising players forming part of the national team to gain valuable international experience.
“The change in format adopted by the EHF this year sees the tournament being contested by U-23 selections,” Borg told reporters.
“From one aspect it’s a kind of a blow for us as we cannot field our best players from the national team but on the other hand it represents an ideal occasion for our young players to gauge their skills against superior opponents at this level.
“Azerbaijan and Moldova are favourites but from what we could gather we think Scotland are more or less of our level.
“We will certainly try and get the best result possible in this round-robin competition as it would certainly help us attract more new-comers to our sport.”
The hosts open their commitments on Friday when they play Azerbaijan at 8 p.m. On Saturday, Malta face Moldova before wrapping up their commitments on Sunday against Scotland.
Coach Matthew Mamo and his no.2 Ian Psaila have a squad of 16 players at their disposal.
The national team coaches are also assisted by Peter Sulc.
The Czech instructor was sent to Malta by the European Handball Federation as part of its Smart Programme, to help developing teams in their build-up to inter-national tournaments.
Meanwhile, Borg also revealed yesterday that the MHA has just renewed its sponsorship with EuroSport for the next three years.
“This agreement is a huge boost for a small organisation like ours,” Borg said.
“EuroSport will be our technical sponsors, supplying all junior and senior national teams with sports apparel.
“This kind of deal encourages us to develop further on our initiatives. So, we hope that this partnership will be of benefit to both parties.”
U-23 squad
J. Scicluna, T. Cassar, D. Tanti, E. Bonello, L. Sammut, M. Meli, J. Zammit, M. Psaila, D. Gargano, I. Turban, K. Baldacchino, C. Magro, A. Di Pilato, P. Naudi, M. Darmanin, M. Borg.
Coach: Matthew Mamo.