By Charlie Russell
Santa Lucia Falcons founder Robert Teuma has exclusively revealed to Yorkshire Voice that he is creating a new amateur football league in Malta.
The Legea National Amateur Football League (NAFL) already has two teams already signed up for the 2018/19 season.
Malta currently have five amateur leagues: The Swan League, MAFA, IASC, FAL and the Masters league which is a five-a-side competition.
A number of players have gone on to feature in Malta’s professional divisions after spells with amateur clubs and Teuma’s ambition is to compete against the current amateur divisions in order to bring through the country’s next crop of talent.
The Maltese businessman spoke to Leeds Trinity University’s Maltese football specialist Charlie Russell about the new league, saying: “I have a lot of things in mind and as I don’t want other leagues on the island taking my ideas I will not be releasing too much detail until the new year.
“What I can tell you though, is that in my role as the president of the National Amateur Football League, I will promise that every team is going to be given the maximum attention and we will leave nobody behind.
“We will ultimately treat everybody equally.”
Teuma has a history of working alongside his father, Alfred Teuma, with his footballing projects and it is no different this time round as the senior Teuma has accepted the role of league secretary.
The newly appointed secretary said: “I am looking forward to starting this new challenge and I understand that it isn’t going to be an easy job. However, I am not afraid to take on such a challenge.
“Another bonus from accepting the role is working with Robert Teuma. He always gives 110% to make sure that all those working on his projects are looked after.”
With Maltese football having a stigma of being corrupt, [Alfred] Teuma discussed how the NAFL will focus on being a clean competition for Maltese football clubs to take part in.
“Competing against other leagues isn’t going to be an issue and we have a mission which is to have a clean competition.
“I believe that Robert knows how to attract clubs to the league.”
Teuma plans to launch the league officially in the new year however, he has given exclusive access to the official website through this article. The new website will be in partnership with award nominated blog, ElWriteBack.
You can be one of the first people to view the website here.