Foreign Kicks — Women’s Football in Malta

A Foreign Kicks page on Malta, compiled with Maria Mifsud, deputy general secretary for grassroots and youth at the Malta FA. There are 1,567 registered female players in a population of around 452,000. The national league runs two divisions, a first of seven clubs playing three round robins and a second of five playing four, with an under-16 league of ten teams that splits in half mid-season. Birkirkara and Hibernians are among three or four leading sides; big games draw crowds while others rely on friends, family and other players, though attendances are rising. The senior side, whose first official UEFA game was a 3-0 defeat by Romania in 2003, are in World Cup qualifying. This season the MFA is supporting the Action for Breast Cancer Foundation’s Give Cancer the Boot campaign.