Ray Farrugia and the national team to part ways

The Malta Football Association Bureau met on Tuesday following the conclusion of Malta’s EURO 2020 Group F qualifying campaign.

The Malta FA Bureau has decided not to renew the contract of national coach Ray Farrugia and the national team’s technical staff beyond the expiry on 31st December, 2019.

The Malta FA would like to place on record its gratitude and appreciation for the work carried out by Farrugia and his coaching staff, namely assistant coach Branko Nisevic, second assistant Ronald Vella, Charles Sciberras, the goalkeepers’ coach, and fitness coach Luca Pagani, during their time with the national team.

Farrugia has, in the past, also occupied the posts of Malta Under-21 coach and national team assistant coach in two different spells.

In the meantime, the Malta FA is steadfastly working to implement a series of projects aimed at improving the level of all the national selections through enhanced football development in line with its longterm strategic programme as adopted by the Association’s Executive Committee recently.

The three major projects related to technical development are:

· the creation of a professional football team that will compete in an overseas professional championship

· the setting up of the Inħobb il-Futbol Foundation, a new structure setup to organise and support football at grassroots and youth levels and contribute to the community through football

· define a unified and consolidated game strategy for national teams at all levels

Further updates on these projects and other reforms being undertaken by the Malta FA, which will come into effect in January 2020, will be communicated in due course.