Steve Borg... Aris Limassol medical.

Valletta will depart for Wales tomorrow afternoon ahead of their Europa League first qualifying round, first-leg tie against Newtown AFC on Thursday night.

The City squad, spearheaded by coach Paul Zammit, are flying out to Birmingham from where they will board a coach on their way to Wales.

Valletta’s preparations for their away match against Newtown AFC at Latham Park have been beset by complications surrounding their UK visa applications for four foreign players, namely Tunisian Abdelkarim Nafti, Nigerian forward Calictus Umeh, Maxim Focsa, a Moldovan defender, and Thierry Tazemeta, from Equatorial Guinea.

These four players, together with club president Victor Sciriha, are expected to travel to Rome tomorrow to try and secure a UK visa to enter Wales through the British Embassy in the Italian capital.

Given that Nafti, Umeh, Focsa and Tazemeta have been named in Valletta’s 18-strong squad for Thursday’s match, their absence would deal a hammer blow to the Maltese club’s hopes of pulling off a positive result in Wales to boost their chances of advancing to a second round clash with Denmark’s FC Copenhagen.

Valletta are already missing four key players for their Welsh mission as Jonathan Caruana and Roderick Briffa are suspended, Shaun Bajada is on honeymoon and Steve Borg is currently in Cyprus for a medical ahead of his proposed move to Aris Limassol.

In spite of all these difficulties, Zammit and his technical team have been striving to prepare for Thursday’s encounter in the best way possible.

Zammit, back at the helm of Valletta after parting ways with Birkirkara, commissioned an English scout, who is a qualified coach, to analyse Newtown AFC in their friendly match against Bala Town FC on Saturday. Newtown lost 4-2.

Ukrainian goalkeeper Oleksandr Musi-yenko arrived on Saturday afternoon after sorting out his own visa issues to travel to Malta.

However, the 28-year-old shot-stopper will not form part of Valletta’s travelling party, meaning that Nicky Vella and Italian Pietro Marino will be vying for the no.1 shirt for Thursday’s match.

Elsewhere, Balzan are resigned to losing Gianmarco Piccioni as the Italian striker is edging closer to a move to Polish club Korona Kielce.

Piccioni, who scored 15 goals for Balzan last season, had been a mooted target for a club in Scotland but the 23-year-old is currently in Poland for talks with Korona Kielce, who play in the country’s top league.

With Colombian winger Oscar Guerrero no longer part of the Balzan squad and Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza back with Valletta, coach Oliver Spiteri has a shortage of strikers ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League home match against Bosnia’s FK Zeljeznicar at the Hibernians Stadium (kick-off 5.45pm).

Balzan have reached an agreement to sign Nigerian striker Godwin Mensah but his participation in tomorrow’s game is in the balance as the Europa League debutants are still awaiting his international transfer certificate.

Mensah played for Spanish club Compostela last season.

Sliema Wanderers and their new partners Next Champions TV are still engaged in discussions with a host of foreign players.

Last week, Sliema signed veteran defender Luke Dimech who had started his career with the Wanderers.

Former Italian forward Andrea Pisanu, who donned the Sliema shirt in the final year of his playing career, will remain with the Blues after being appointed team manager.

Police probe scam

Times of Malta can reveal that the police are investigating claims that young foreign players were duped into paying money to a foreign agent who promised to help them secure a move to a Maltese club.

The police began their investigations after one of the victims of this alleged scam contacted the Malta Football Association.

The association’s Integrity Office conducted its own initial inquiries before referring the matter to the police.

In the last few days, a number of club officials, past and present, have been spoken to by the investigating officers as part of their on-going probe as the prime suspect allegedly used letterheads of Maltese clubs to lure young players into giving him money to pursue a move to local football.