The town of Ta’ Xbiex will be represented once again in the National League as a new club – Ta’ Xbiex Sports Club – were approved by the Council of the Malta Football Association as members and will be taking part in the BOV Third Division League 2012/13. The Council discussed the four applications from clubs to take part in the BOV Third Division next season.
There were four applications by Marsa FC, Kalkara FC, Ta’ Xbiex SC and Ghajnsielem FC.
Marsa and Kalkara, who finished in the bottom two places in the BOV Third Division and therefore had to re-apply, were both accepted.
As regards Ghajnsielem’s application, the Executive Committee felt that at the time being, their application should not be accepted as among other reasons, it would open a window for all other Gozitan clubs which would pose a problem of logistics. However the association is ready to discuss the issue further with stakeholders.
President Norman Darmanin Demajo said that following Ta’ Xbiex SC’s application to take part in Division 3, he was against increasing the number of teams in the Third Division and since there were twelve teams in the BOV Premier League, twelve teams in the BOV First Division, fourteen in the BOV Second Division and fourteen in the BOV Third Division, he was in favour of adding a team in the First Division rather than adding another team in the Third Division.
For this reason, the Executive Committee proposed that Ta’ Xbiex SC would be admitted to Division 3 while on the team which finished eleventh in the BOV First Division 2011/12 and the team which finished twelfth in the BOV Second Division 2011/12 would not be relegated to Divisions 2 and 3 respectively in order to increase one team in Division 1.
The Third Division Standing Committee put forward another proposal stating that for season 2012/13, fifteen clubs would play in the BOV Third Division. In order to increase the number of clubs in the BOV First Division to thirteen teams, at the end of the season 2012/13, two teams are relegated from Division 1 to Division 2 while three teams are promoted from Division 2 to Division 1. Two teams are relegated from Division 2 to Division 3 while three teams are promoted from Division 3 to Division 2. They also suggested that as from season 2013/14, three teams are relegated from Division 1 to Division 2 and three teams are promoted from Division 2 to Division 1.
In the discussion, another proposal was put forward – that of increasing the number of teams in the BOV First Division to fourteen as from season 2013/14. At the end of season 2012/13, two teams would be relegated from Division 1 to Division 2 while four teams would be promoted to Division 1 while two teams would be relegated from Division 2 to Division 3 while four teams would be promoted from Division 3 to Division 2.
The Council accepted this proposal and a vote was taken in the Extraordinary General Meeting which was held later in the afternoon. The latter proposal was approved and therefore Ta’ Xbiex will be playing in Division 3 as from season 2012/13 while the number of teams in Division 1 will increase to fourteen as from the following season.
2012/13
BOV First Division – two promoted to Premier League; two relegated to Second Division.
BOV Second Division – four promoted to First Division; two relegated to Third Division.
BOV Third Division – four promoted to Second Division.
As from 2013/14
BOV First Division – two promoted to Premier League; three relegated to Second Division.
BOV Second Division – three promoted to First Division; three relegated to Third Division.
BOV Third Division – three promoted to Second Division.
Meanwhile the Extraordinary General Meeting approved a number of amendments to the Statute of the Malta Football Association.
These were mainly amendments requested by FIFA and changes in the composition of the Council with the inclusion of representatives from two member associations – namely two representatives from the Futsal Malta Association and one representative from the Malta Beach Soccer Association.