Now that the EURO 2004 euphoria has started to fade out, Maltese football today begins its bid to capture the attention of the local fans when champions and FA Trophy winners Sliema Wanderers take on Birkirkara, their rivals and Premier League runners-up, in the first official warm-up match of the new season.
Renamed the Euro Challenge Cup after long-time sponsor Lowenbrau ended their backing to this pre-season tournament, Sliema and Birkirkara, the strongest teams for the past two seasons, were drawn to face each other in the opening match today.
Marsaxlokk, the new force of Maltese football, claimed the third and final slot in the competition by virtue of their first qualification ever to the UEFA Cup as FA Trophy finalists.
This annual triangular competition is intended to give Malta's European ambassadors some much-needed competitive practice before their adventures on the continent.
Over the past few years, clubs' forays into the transfer market helped to increase the expectancy for this competition as fans look forward to seeing the new signings in action but so far, buying activity by the big guns has been virtually non-existent.
This factor has not diminished the significance of this competition in the eyes of Edward Aquilina and Stephen Azzopardi, the coaches of Sliema and Birkirkara respectively.
"The Challenge Cup is a good opportunity to gauge the condition of the players at this stage of the pre-season," Aquilina said. "There is also the added benefit of gaining some much-needed competitive action ahead of our matches in the Champions League.
"Needless to say that we will do our best to win this competition and continue where we left off last season," Aquilina added.
Malta striker Michael Mifsud, at the centre of attention due to the controversy surrounding his abortive move to Lillestrom, is unavailable for the champions this evening.
Aquilina has no injury worries and is likely to use these matches to try out young players such as Joseph Farrugia, Pierre Grima and Alex Muscat, all back at the Wanderers after loan spells with other clubs.
For his part, Azzopardi, the Birkirkara coach, cannot send out his best formation today due to injuries to skipper Chucks Nwoko, Matthew Calascione and Kenneth Scicluna.
Scicluna and Michael Galea gave the Birkirkara faithful a boost before the advent of a new season when they signed new contracts last week.
"This is our first official outing since the end of last season as we did not play any friendlies in our pre-season," Azzopardi said.
"These tests are useful in so far as they give us the chance to enhance our match sharpness but this is also a competition we will try to win. We are the holders and we are keen on defending the title," Azzopardi added.
The three clubs contesting the Euro Challenge Cup play the first legs of their UEFA competitions matches next week.
Sliema are first in action when they host Lithuanian champions FBK Kaunas at the National Stadium on July 13.
July 15 is the turn of the UEFA Cup participants to launch their Euro campaigns. Marsaxlokk meet Slovenia's NK Primorje at Ta' Qali and Birkirkara square up to FK Partizani of Albania in Tirana.
Marsaxlokk, now coached by Atanas Marinov, play the losers of today's encounter in the second Euro Challenge Cup tie on Wednesday.
In the event of a draw today, it will be the Wanderers who meet Marsaxlokk in the second match. The competition wraps up on Friday.