The Malta FA have linked up with the Youth FA and McDonald’s to embark on a new educational football programme for Under-11 players under a UEFA pilot project.
At the launch of the McDonald’s FootballPLUS For Kids, which comprises a series of five regional festivals also focusing on the educational and cultural aspects, Norman Saliba, the MFA marketing manager, explained some of the findings of a survey on local football and how it compares with other sports.
Saliba said the survey, carried out last year by a German research company appointed by UEFA, had a sample of 1,000 participants aged 18 to 60.
The findings show that football is still the most-followed sport in Malta with 55 per cent of those interviewed indicating their interest in the Beautiful Game, followed by tennis (15%), motorsport (14%), swimming/waterpolo (12%) and athletics (10%).
In terms of sports participation, football also came out on top with 15 per cent while 39 per cent of the respondents said their children practised football.
While football topped the bill in many fields, it placed 14th out of 15 disciplines when the respondents were asked about their perception of football’s image.
Saliba explained that Malta was one of six national associations selected by UEFA to take part in this pilot project which is intended to improve the image of football across Europe, grow participation and fan engagement, optimise revenues from second inventory and standardise measurement.
“The MFA intends to step up its efforts and continue to tackle the key challenges facing the game,” he said.
Saliba explained that a significant decline in the number of active footballers across Europe, from 22.9m to 19.6m in only a few years, prompted UEFA to try and reverse the slump through concrete action.
The McDonald’s FootballPLUS For Kids aims to address some of these issues, at grassroots level, and is part of the MFA’s strategy for growth and retention in local football participation. The project, which is expected to run until 2020, will see eight to 10 football nurseries participating in every festival.
The first will take place tomorrow at the Mġarr ground with ‘Say No To Bullying’ chosen as the social theme.
The four other festivals, between March 26 and May 22, will be staged in Żebbuġ, Dingli, Marsaxlokk and the Tedesco Stadium in Ħamrun.
Stephen Grima, the MFA’s director of football education, spoke about the association’s efforts to raise the level of Maltese coaches across the board.
Commenting on criticism about the excessive number of clubs and players in Malta and their effect on the game’s quality, Grima said the two can co-exist as the country needs a large pool of players to have good elite football.
Joe Micallef, the general secretary of the Youth FA, said his organisation had an obligation to invest in grassroots.
Cynthia Caruana, marketing manager at McDonald’s, an-nounced that the Player Escort Campaign is also part of the FootballPLUS For Kids project.
“We will be sending two player escorts from Malta during Euro 2016 in France, one for the semi-final in Lyon and the other to feature in the Paris final,” Caruana said.