The Malta Football Association is working hard in view of the organisation of the UEFA Under-17 Championship finals which will be held between the 9th and 21st May. This will be the first time, Malta will host a final tournament.

Speaking during a meeting of the Council of the Malta Football Association on Thursday, CEO Bjorn Vassallo said the draws for the finals are scheduled for April 9 at St. James Cavalier.

Vassallo said that during those two weeks, Malta will be under the spotlight with nine of the fifteen matches being screened live on Eurosport or Eurosport 2.

Three venues will host the fifteen matches, namely the National Stadium, the Hibernians Stadium and the Gozo Stadium. During the group stage, the seven participating teams apart from Malta will be using these venues for training: the MFA Training Grounds, the Centenary Stadium, the Victor Tedesco Stadium, Luxol Stadium, Melita Ground, Charles Abela Stadium, Mellieha Ground, Dingli Ground, Rabat Ajax Ground and Sirens Stadium.

There will be three match-days in the group stage – Friday 9, Monday 12 and Thursday 15. The semi-finals will be played on Sunday 18 and the final on Wednesday 21. There will be two kick-off times on match-days – a morning one which targets school-children who are being encouraged to attend and an 18:00 kick-off time.

Bjorn Vassallo said the association was currently working with UEFA on the commercial agreements. He said that apart from Adidas and Eurosport, there should be another key partner for the tournament.