The Executive Board of the Malta FA met on Wednesday via videoconference to discuss  Pembroke Athleta’s submission of its License application in the Amateur category and its impact on the National League. With an amateur status the club would participate in the National Amateur League. In the process, one vacancy would be created for Season 2022/23 in the Premier League and another in the Challenge League. 

The Board saw the relevant regulations to confirm that the Club could effectively choose to apply for such licence. Furthermore, it referred to the regulations that  govern the impact of such vacancy and the way it ought to be filled. According  to Article 5 of the Rules Governing Competitions when a vacancy is available  in any division, the Board shall fill it with the Club which had been sportingly relegated. 

Applying this principle, Santa Lucia FC would take the place of Pembroke Athleta SC in the Premier League and Vittoriosa Stars FC would take the vacant  place in the Challenge League created through the non-relegation of Santa Lucija FC.  

Vittoriosa Stars FC finished the Challenge League 2021/22 in the 9th place from eleven clubs in Group A, where Pembroke Athleta participated. 

In line with this position, the Malta FA President Bjorn Vassallo explained that the competence of the Executive Board was limited to the composition of the  National League. This will be confirmed once the deadline for club license  applications is reached on the 1st July.