The 2012 season will be off to a start on Thursday, June 7 with four matches heralding what should be another exhilarating campaign for the principal honours of the year.
The draws were made yesterday at the ASA headquarters in Tal-Qroqq by Peter Perotti, Bank of Valletta chief officer, in the presence of ASA president Joe Caruana Curran and other association officials.
The nine teams taking part this year were divided into two preliminary round groups where a single round-robin series of matches will be played.
Teams were seeded according to their respective final positions in last year’s summer league, with the champions and runners-up being top seeds in each group and the others following suit as determined by their placings.
As was the case last year, the final classification of the preliminary round will be established after the top teams in each group play each other, followed by matches between the teams in the corresponding positions.
The top five teams will make up the First Division, to be contested on a double round-robin league, while the other four will form the Second Division which will be now played over three rounds. There will again be bonus points according to the team’s placings with five points for the top, three for the second, two for the third and one for the fourth team in Division One.
Division Two will have a five, three, two, one starting bonus respectively.
As from this season, the ASA has opted for a change in the play-offs format for the top flight after what the association’s president des-cribed as “certain suggestions from several quarters for a better tuning of the system”.
The teams outside the top three will face each other in a one-match decider for fourth place and those finishing second and third will be involved in a three-match play-off to earn the right to contest the final against the first-placed team on a best-of-five series.
In the Second Division, the top two teams will figure in a best-of-three series to determine the destination of the league honours this summer.
Caruana Curran said that all teams are looking forward to another interesting summer campaign which has once again the backing of the sponsors, Bank of Valletta, to whom he expressed his gratitude for their co-operation.
There will be a new electronic ticketing system in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ turnstiles, with day tickets priced at €5 and season tickets at €50.
The ASA president also said that later on other novelties for the benefit of the fans will be revealed.
Peter Perotti said that after last season’s title race, where the championship was decided at the very last moments of the final play-off game, “we are again on the threshold of another vibrant competition of high level.
“This has justified the ASA’s decision to adopt the same format this year with even better fine-tuning to provide incentives for teams to play to their maximum.”
Meanwhile, vice-president Alan Bonello said that care was taken in order to avoid as much as possible fixtures clashing with Euro 2012.
Meanwhile, before the draws were made Steve Camilleri (Neptunes), who came in for special mention by the main speakers for doing Malta proud when playing in the Serie A league, was presented with the BOV Player of the Year award for 2011 while Andrea Sammut (Valletta) was presented with the Second Division honour.
The ASA draw
Group A: Sliema, Exiles, Otters, Ta’ Xbiex, San Ġiljan.
Group B: Marsascala, Neptunes, Sirens, Valletta.
First programme (June 7)
4.15 p.m. Sliema vs Exiles
5.30 p.m. Otters vs Ta’ Xbiex
6.45 p.m. M’scala vs Neptunes
8.00 p.m. Sirens vs Valletta