Valletta unveil new sponsor

Champions Valletta will be waring the logo of gaming company Betsson after securing a two-year sponsorship deal. The new sponsorship was unveiled during a press conference held at the Le Meridien Hotel, St. Julian’s on Wednesday.

Valletta president Victor Sciriha thanked Betsson for this sponsorship and said that in Malta, only Valletta could give such an extensive exposure.

Sciriha stressed that the club’s aim is not to win the championship but to progress in European competitions.

“This is what we will work for. We got the right players and if necessary, we will strengthen the squad further in January,” said Sciriha.

The Valletta president went on to say that the biggest signing the club could do was to sign Michael Mifsud who has now committed himself to the Citizens for five years.

Victor Sciriha said Valletta were the main “sponsor” for the national team supplying them with seven to eight players and a “sponsor” for other clubs in terms of gate-money due to the large number of supporters the Citizens bring to the stadium. Sciriha said hopefully things will change in this matter and clubs will receive their fair share of gate money according the number of spectators they manage to attract.

Works on the new Valletta stadium in Hal-Farrugia will hopefully start by the end of the year once the Parliament re-opens after the summer recess and sanctions the lease agreement and plans are submitted to MEPA.

Sciriha revealed that the stadium will have a natural turf pitch as he said it was not an ideal situation to have a team training on an artificial turf pitch throughout the week and then play on the natural turf at Ta’ Qali.

He also thanked Giovanni Cappitta of Mare Blu who was the main sponsor for the past three years.

Betsson Commercial Director Erik Grohman said the company was passionate about sports. He said Betsson was committed to conducting its business in Malta and besides being the largest employer in Malta, one third of the employees were Maltese. With this sponsorship, the company was showing its commitment to Malta, Maltese society and Maltese sports.

Grohman said Valletta were only the second team to be sponsored by Betsson after the company signed a partnership agreement with Arsenal a few weeks ago.

“We like to work with the best – that is why we wanted to work with Valletta,” concluded Erik Grohman.