St. Andrews Summer Friendship Cup launched

Newly-promoted Premier League side St. Andrews will be organising a tournament between the 29th July and 13th August at the Luxol Stadium featuring four Premier League clubs and four from Division 1.

The teams taking part are Valletta, Tarxien Rainbows, Melita and Gzira United in Section A; Sliema Wanderers, St. Andrews, Fgura United and Senglea Athletic. Teams will be playing on a one-round league basis with the top four moving on to the semi-finals and the teams finishing third and fourth in the two groups playing for the final placing. Teams will therefore play a minimum of four matches.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, organiser Lino Bartolo said there were three objectives behind the organisation of this tournament.

Bartolo explained that first of all, the tournament wanted to showcase the qualities of both established and up-and-coming players now that St. Andrews are being managed by Talent 11. Secondly Luxol wanted to give something back to the fans after twenty-five year absence from top division with the organisation of a tournament which featured some of the top clubs. The third objective was integrity – no betting or match-fixing.

Ticket price will be €3 per match-day and with tickets, one would have the opportunity of winning a flight to Croatia.

Valletta coach Paul Zammit and St. Andrews coach Wayne Attard also addressed the press conference.

Zammit said that rather than just have friendly matches, he preferred having Valletta take part in a well-organised tournament in order to have a good opportunity to gauge his team before the coming BOV Premier League campaign. He said this was even more important due to the fact that he practically had to start from scratch with an almost completely new squad.

Attard, on the other hand, said that this tournament will give him the opportunity of watching his team playing against other Premier League clubs while seeing all of his players in action.

Wed-29-July 18:15 Group A Valletta vs Tarxien R.
Wed-29-July 20:30 Group A Melita vs Gzira U.

Thu-30-July 18:15 Group B Fgura U. vs Senglea A.
Thu-30-July 20:30 Group B Sliema W. vs St. Andrews

Sat-1-August 19:30 Group A Valletta vs Melita

Sun-2-August 19:00 Group B Sliema W. vs Fgura U.

Tue-4-August 18:15 Group B Senglea A. vs St Andrews
Tue-4-August 20:30 Group A Gzira U vs Tarxien R.

Thu-6-August 18:15 Group A Valletta vs Gzira U.
Thu-6-August 20:30 Group B Sliema W. vs Senglea A.

Fri-7-August 18:15 Group A Melita vs Tarxien R.
Fri-7-August 20:30 Group B Fgura vs St. Andrews

Sun-9-August 18:15 Semi-Final A1 vs B2
Sun-9-August 20:30 Semi-Final B1 vs A2

Tue-11-August 18:15 7th/8th Place A4 vs B4
Tue-11-August 20:30 5th/6th Place A3 vs B3

Thu-13-August 18:15 Final 3rd/4th Place
Thu-13-August 20:30 Final
Thu-13-August 22:30 Presentation