There were times in the history of Maltese football when crowds of twenty thousand spectators were a common thing. Before the war, football was the major source of entertainment for the Maltese.
The popularity of the sport can be gauged by the crowds which filled the terraces of the Empire Stadium each weekend, no matter which team was playing. The crowds flocked to the Stadium not only for the First Division matches, but also for the games of the lower divisions.
Many teams were formed during that glorious era of Maltese football especially in the districts bordering around the Grand Harbour and in the capital city.
In the Thirties, parochialism in Valletta ran high. The area of the Arċipirku were pre-dominantly Pawlini and they had a popular team in St Paul’s FC.
This team was very popular in the lower divisions of the Maltese football league.
Not to be outdone, their great rivals from the area of the Dumnikani wanted to form a team of their own. Emmanuel Calleja, Joseph Salinos and a handful of others got together and, in 1934, they founded ‘The Valletta Prestons Football Club’ which in a short while was to become one of the most popular amateur teams of the era.
In 1934-35, Valletta Prestons gained admission to the Fourth Division of the MFA league. The team took some time to settle down in the league but by the fifth year of their existence they had gained promotion to Section B of the First Division.
Valletta Prestons remained in the Third Division up to 1938-39 when the MFA re-organised the league in three divisions.
The First and Second Divisions were divided into two sections. The Third Division was divided into three while the Fourth Division was scrapped.
All the matches were played at the Empire Stadium in Gżira.
Sliema Wanderers were the league champions that season. The Tigers of Floriana won Section B of the First Division and Valletta St Paul’s topped the Second Division.
Vittoriosa took the honours in the Third Division.
The Stars won all their matches in Section A, scoring 15 goals and conceding only one in the process.
Section B and C were much more balanced. At the end, both sections required deciders to resolve the issue.
In Section B, Rabat FC and Żabbar Amateurs finished on equal points.
Rabat beat the Amateurs 2-0 but then went down to Paola Wolves 2-0.
The Magpies paid dearly for this lapse as they lost to Żabbar 1-0 in the section decider after the first match ended in a 1-1 draw.
The same thing happened in Section C. Mosta United beat fellow leaders Valletta Prestons 2-1 but then lost 3-2 to Luqa St Andrew’s.
Mosta paid the price of their failure to beat St Andrews when they lost 3-1 to the Prestons in the section decider.
The three sections winners then met each other in the form of a league to decide the eventual Division Three champions.
Championship decider
Żabbar Amateurs were the weakest of the three teams as could be seen from the results they obtained in the Championship Pool.
The Amateurs were bowled out of the race for the championship following 2-0 and 3-1 defeats against against Vittoriosa and Valletta respectively.
The deciding match between Vittoriosa Stars and Valletta Prestons attracted a huge crowd to the Stadium.
The two protagonists were evenly-balanced and although both teams had their chances, the match ended in a 1-1 draw. This left the two rivals level on points and a decider had to be played to select the new champions.
Once again, another big crowd filled the Stadium terraces. Valletta’s were the nosiest crowd but at the end the supporters of Vittoriosa Stars had much more to shout about.
Much against expectations, tal-Birgu won the match 3-0 and were crowned champions of the Third Division for 1938-39.