Hamrun Spartans lie ninety minutes away from possibly making history as the first Maltese club to enter the league stage of a European competition as they face FK RFS of Latvia in the second leg of the UEFA Conference League play-off round at the LNK Sporta Parks in Riga on Thursday, kick-off at 19:00.
A goal by Saliou Thioune handed the Spartans a narrow win in the first leg and therefore a draw would be enough to eliminate RFS and enter the league stage of the UEFA Conference League.
This, however, would be no easy task as RFS already experienced qualifying for the group/league stage. In fact, in 2022, after bowing out of the UEFA Champions League, RFS met Hibernians in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League and following a 1-1 draw in Riga, they registered a highly controversial 3-1 win after extra time at the Centenary Stadium to reach the play-off round where they eliminated Linfield to qualify for the group stage. Last season, they managed to reach the league stage of the UEFA Europa League where they earned five points thanks to a 1-0 win over Ajax and home draws with Anderlecht and Galatasaray to place 32nd out of thirty six teams.
In 2022, Hamrun Spartans had also made it to the play-off round of the UEFA Conference League. They started their run with a 4-2 aggregate win over Alashkert of Armenia and following back-to-back 1-0 wins over Velez Mostar of Bosnia and Herzergovina, they were paired with Levski Sofia of Bulgaria where the Spartans managed to prevail 4-1 on penalties following a 2-2 aggregate score. However, in the play-off round, they had to face the Serbian giants of Partizan Belgrade where following a 4-1 loss in Belgrade, the Spartans bowed out of the competition with a 3-3 draw at Ta’ Qali.
This season, the Spartans had eliminated FK Zalgiris of Lithuania in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League on penalties following a 2-0 defeat in Vilnius and a 2-0 win at the Centenary Stadium. In the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, Hamrun suffered back-to-back 0-3 defeats to Dynamo Kyiv and in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League, the Spartans lost 1-2 to Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Tony Bezzina Stadium and 1-3 in the neutral venue of Backa Topola in Serbia.
The pressure will definitely be on Giacomo Modica’s boys but what is at stake is a game changer as qualifying for the league stage would definitely raise the profile of the local game.
Malta is in fact one of a handful of countries failing to land at least one club in the group/league stage of one of the UEFA competitions. Qualification would guarantee at least six matches – three at home and three away – against six different teams. It will also boost earnings as teams making it to the league stage of the UEFA Conference League would receive at least €3.17 million from UEFA apart from performance-related bonuses and bonuses related to TV rights starting from €114k for the lowest ranked team, €228 for the team placing second from bottom, €342 for the team placing third from bottom, etc. There is also a bonus of €400k for a win and €133k for a draw throughout the league stage.
Therefore all eyes will be on the Spartans as they chase the European dream.