Sixteen clubs and national teams will be visiting Malta early next year for training camps thanks to collaboration between the Malta Tourism Authority and Austrian firm SLFC GmbH. SLFC, together with their local partners Alpine Sterling, formed Malta Training Camps a company which will be offering foreign teams the possibility of carrying out training camps in Malta.

Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven, Legia Warsaw of Poland, BATE Borisov of Belarus, FC Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic, Norwegians Stabaek Fotball and Aalesunds FK, Turkish side Caykur Rizespor, FC Terek Grozny of Russia, FK Dedic of Montenegro and Eintracht Braunschweig of Germany will be attending training camps in Malta along with the Moldova national team, the Czech Republic and the Montenegro Under-21 national teams, the Ukraine and Latvia women’s national teams and an MLS Academy Elite team between the months of January and March.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, MTA Chairman Gavin Gulia explained that the MTA has been working hard to attract sports tourism especially during the winter season. He also revealed that Brand Ambassador Javier Zanetti will be organising another training camp in mid-February.

MTA Chief Executive Paul Bugeja said that the MTA has been giving its full support to such initiatives as this was part of its strategies to attract more tourism to Malta especially during this period of the year. He said 14,000 persons visited Malta to take parts in events like the Mdina Grand Prix, the Vodafone Malta Marathon, the Xterra Malta Triathlon, the Tour ta Malta, among others.

Parliamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport Chris Agius said the government will continue to work on improving facilities at the Marsa Sports Complex in order to reach out to more sports disciplines who could take similar initiatives. Also addressing the press conference were MFA General Secretary Bjorn Vassallo, Hannes Empl on behalf of SLFC and Warren Zahra from Malta Training Camps.