Malta to host UEFA Under-19 Championship 2023

Malta will be hosting the UEFA Under-19 Championship finals in 2023. This was confirmed during a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Montreux, Switzerland on Monday.

Originally, Malta had made a bid to host the 2024 edition of the UEFA Under-19 Championship and following the cancellation due to COVID-19 of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 championships which were due to be held in Northern Ireland and Romania respectively, these two countries were expected to be given preference. The 2021/22 edition will be held in Slovakia.

Malta had successfully hosted the UEFA Under-17 Championships in 2014. England won the tournament, defeating the Netherlands on penalties.

Malta FA President Bjorn Vassallo expressed his satisfaction, “I am delighted that the country and the Malta Football Association have yet again been entrusted to host a major event as the final phase of a UEFA tournament. In these challenging times for all, this decision by the UEFA Executive Committee provides us with a great opportunity to project Maltese football beyond our shores, as we did in 2014.”

Through this tournament the Association will aim to leave a legacy interms of fan engagement and overall experience, particularly in the grassroots sector.

Furthermore, with the support of the government, the existing and new infrastructure that will be used to host the tournament will certainly be given a boost which will also benefit the entire domestic football family.

Hosting a major international event was one of the objectives set in the Association’s strategy ‘We Can Perform Better’.

Apart from Malta, the other hosts to be appointed for the following youth championship final tournaments were as follows:

• UEFA Women’s Under-17 Championship: Estonia 2023, Sweden 2024, Faroe Islands 2025.

• UEFA Under-17 Championship: Hungary 2023, Cyprus 2024.

• UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship: Belgium 2023, Lithuania 2024, Belarus 2025.

• UEFA Under-19 Championship: Malta 2023, Northern Ireland 2024, Romania 2025.