Ban on contact sport to be lifted on May 24

The ban on contact sport, including football will be lifted on May 24 and actual matches can be played as from June 7 but children under the age of seventeen would have to wait until June 28. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Dr Chris Fearne and the Superintendent for Public Health Prof Charmaine Gauci.

Prime Minister Dr Robert Abela had announced last month that training for professional contact sport would resume on May 10 but following Thursday’s announcement, any other senior team could resume training on May 24. However, this is not the case for those under the age of seventeen who will have to wait until June 28 to resume training.

Matches could only be staged as from June 7.

In fact, the clubs of the Futsal Malta Association have unanimously agreed to resume the national league on June 16th. The curtailed league format was also agreed and the new champion will be known by the end of June, just in time to participate in this year’s edition of the UEFA Futsal Champions League.

Organised sport had been banned since March 11 following a record number of new COVID-19 cases and this eventually led to the termination of all competitions organised by the Malta FA since the association had a June 1st deadline to submit the name of the teams participating in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa Conference League.