The 2010 JPL Cisk Lager Cup will again be an Anglo-Maltese affair after Sheffield United were confirmed as one of the participating teams in this pre-season tournament.
Maltese champions Birkirkara and Vittoriosa Stars, who clinched promotion to the Premier League last season, complete the three-team line-up with Hibs on standby to replace the Stripes if they advance to the second qualifying round of the Champions League.
Details about the JPL Cisk Lager Cup were given by Louis Agius, director of JPL Sports Events, during a news conference at TeamSport yesterday.
The three teams will face each other in 45-minute matches at the Hibs Stadium on July 16.
Birkirkara, or Hibs, take on Vittoriosa Stars in the opening match, starting at 7.30 p.m., with Sheffield United meeting the loser of the first game in the second fixture. The third and final match will be between the Blades and the winner of the curtain-raiser.
If a match ends in a draw, penalties will be taken to decide the winner. Agius explained that an outright victory carries three points but if a match is decided by a shoot-out, the winning side will gain two points and the losers one. The price of tickets will be €6.
Last year, Sheffield Wednesday, the winners of the first JPL Cisk Lager Cup, lured over 300 fans to Malta.
Warren Zahra, of Alpine Sterling, is confident that hundreds of Sheffield United supporters will descend on our islands later this month to get up, close and personal with their players, including newly-signed Malta striker Daniel Bogdanovic.
"In agreement with Sheffield United, we will be offering our services to the fans who will be visiting Malta to watch the team train and play here," Zahra said.
"We have drawn up a number of events, including a palm-print ceremony for the Sheffield United contingent at Bay Street, a question and answer session with team manager Kevin Blackwell and a BBQ at St George's Bay."
Winston Muscat, the coach of Vittoriosa Stars, said the match against Sheffield United will be the Cottonera club's first ever against a foreign team.
"The prospect of playing a match against a foreign team for the first time in our club's history was a factor in our decision to take part in this tournament," Muscat said.
"Furthermore, our target for the season is to produce a strong challenge to keep our status in the Premier League and our involvement in this pre-season tournament should aid our preparations."
Andrew Calleja, the vice-president of Birkirkara FC, said his club is honoured to have been invited to participate in this tournament.
As Birkirkara have been handed a 3-0 win by UEFA following the cancellation of the first leg of their Champions League first qualifying round match against Andorra's FC Santa Coloma last Tuesday, the Stripes are now widely tipped to progress to the second round, in which case they would have to pull out of the pre-season tournament.
Asked whether other foreign clubs had enquired about the possibility of holding their pre-season training camp in Malta, Agius said that it's hard to attract teams to train in Malta during the hot summer months, also because of a shortage of adequate turf pitches during this time of the year.
However, the outlook is different for the winter months as Agius revealed that JPL, who organised Parma's visit to Malta last year, are engaged in efforts to bring three top teams to stage a training camp and take part in a triangular tournament here in the December-January period.