This year’s Mediterranean Comen Cup tournament for Under-20 national teams, being played in Malta between today and Sunday, will have new playing regulations which are being introduced.

However, there will be no changes in the laws of the game.

The playing regulations are spread over several areas, including the size of the pitch and the ball, the number of players in the squad and the units in the pitch at one given moment.

The ball will be smaller and the pitch is reduced to 25 metres in length instead of the usual 30 metres. The team squad will be made up of 11 players with six in the water including the goal-keeper.

The laws of the game will remain unaltered, with each session being of eight minutes duration and the players having a maximum of three personal faults before they are excluded for good.

Possession period and extra-man duration will also remain the same.

The changes are part of an experiment aimed at making the game more attractive.

The teams taking part in the tournament are Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy and Serbia, besides Malta.

There will be three matches daily, except on Saturday where six matches are scheduled and spread over the morning and afternoon sessions.

Over the four days Malta will play Italy, Serbia, Israel, Greece and Cyprus in that order.

The opening ceremony will be held at the National Pool this evening soon after the Malta-Italy encounter.

Programme

Today: 16.15 Greece vs Serbia; 17.30 Italy vs Malta; 19.15 Cyprus vs Israel.

Tomorrow: 16.15 Serbia vs Malta; 17.30 Israel vs Italy; 18.45 Cyprus vs Israel.

Saturday: 09.00 Serbia vs Malta; 10.15 Cyprus vs Serbia; 11.30 Italy vs Greece; 16.15 Serbia vs Israel; 17.30 Greece vs Malta; 18.45 Cyprus vs Italy.

Sunday: 09.00 Israel vs Greece; 10.15 Malta vs Cyprus; 11.30 Italy vs Serbia.