The Bank Of Valletta football team have been crowned winners of the first Champions Bank tournament which was played in Belgrade.

Champions Bank 2014 saw the participation of 20 teams representing banks, bank insurances and financial institutions.

BOV placed second in Group D following a 3-0 victory over Generali PBZ (Croatia) and a 2-0 win over CNP Vita (Italy). The Maltese team drew their matches against Fideuram (Italy) and Deutsche Bank (Germany).

A narrow 1-0 success over BSI Switzerland in the quarter-finals led to a last-four clash against Unicredito (Serbia) which BOV won following a penalty shoot-out. Their opponents in the final were Deutsche Bank.

The title match resulted in a draw at the end of regular time and once again, the BOV team had to contend with a shoot-out where they prevailed with a score of 3-2.

The Champions Bank tournament also had a social dimension as the organising committee donated five euros to the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation for every goal scored.

This is a non-profit organisation set up by legendary basketball player Vlade Divac, of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Bank of Valletta team was composed of Rudy Briffa, Stephen Mizzi, Chris Penza, Sandro Bonnici, Joseph Zammit, Andrew Scerri, Keith Mifsud, Ian Darmanin, Andreas Galea and Ryan Darmanin. They were under the charge of coaches Frans Cassar and Clayton Garzia.

Accompanying the group were officials Joe Baldacchino, Mario Falzon, Justin Schembri and Kenneth Micallef.