Champions Valletta start their defence of the BOV Premier League title as they take on Tarxien Rainbows in one of the two BOV Premier League matches in programme on Sunday at the National Stadium.

Valletta, winners of the BOV Super Cup two weeks ago, have been strengthened further with the signing of Malta international midfielder Shaun Bajada. They had earlier signed goalkeeper Manuel Bartolo and Brazilians Ricardo Filho, Gabriel and Leandro Almeida. However coach Mark Miller could not count on the injured Jonathan Caruana and Denni.

Tarxien Rainbows appointed Danilo Doncic as their new coach this summer. The squad went through a number of changes, signing Steve Bonnici from Hamrun, Andrew Agius from Attard and two new Brazilian players.

Meanwhile in the first game, Hamrun Spartans face Balzan.

The Spartans confirmed Stefan Sultana as coach but following the appointment of technical director Atanas Marinov, they signed five Bulgarian players, namely Adrian Olegov, Angel Yozhev, Anton Vergilov, Lyubomir Vitanov and Nikolay Bozhov together with Richard Brightwell, Terence Scerri, Terence Vella and Anthony Curmi. However Gaetan Spiteri and Rupert Mangion are no longer with the club.

Balzan, once again under the guidance of team-manager Ivan Zammit, signed three new foreigners Renato Garcia Conceicao, Matthew Mendy and Elton Alexandre da Silva. Other new signings are experience duo Stefan Giglio and Malcolm Licari.