In a facebook post Alan Abela Malta Premier CEO has expressed his opinion on the current Malta Premier format by making a comparison to other foreign football leagues.
In his post he wrote:
“The formats nobody mentions… Today at Wembley, the match with the biggest prize money in annual football was played — the Championship Playoff for a place in the Premier League. The winner receives an extra €230 million in revenue and TV rights. Just imagine: the winner of the Champions League gets ‘only’ €120 million. This match was played between Middlesbrough, who finished fifth, and Hull, who finished sixth. Hull won.
Millwall, who finished third with 10 points more than Hull, were knocked out in the playoffs. Tomorrow in Italy, the first leg of the playoff for promotion to Serie A will also be played. This will be between Catanzaro, who finished fifth, and Monza, who finished third with 17 points more. Right or wrong, the same situations that happened in the Malta Premier also happen in leagues much bigger than ours. Why?
Because the truth is that every league tries to remain relevant, commercially viable, and interesting until the very end.”
Despite the constant criticism by the general public backed by a handful of media reporters the Malta Premier has gone from strength to strength with regards the increase number of spectators and TV viewers who tuned to over 100 matches that were broadcast live on the PBS’s Sports Channel TVMSport.
During last week’s football show Il-Kampjonat, MPL CEO Alan Abela confirmed that, from next season, clubs will be give a financial incentive to make greater use of home-grown players.
Clubs will still be allowed, as in the campaign just over to include up to 11 foreign players in their matchday squad, with a maximum of 8 in the starting lineup.
Mr Abela also confirmed that lower division clubs will be benefiting financially from the MPL ongoing progress.
All this doing part of the MPL’s continued effort and contribution towards supporting and strengthening the entire local football ecosystem
