2023–24 Maltese Premier League

Maltese Premier League
Season	2023–24
Dates	15 September 2023 – 4 May 2024
Champions	Ħamrun Spartans; (10th title)
Relegated	Gudja United; Santa Lucia; Sirens; Valletta
UEFA Champions League	Ħamrun Spartans
UEFA Conference League	Floriana; Marsaxlokk; Sliema Wanderers
Matches played	182
Goals scored	443 (2.43 per match)
Top goalscorer	Luke Montebello; (21 Goals)
Biggest home win	Marsaxlokk 5–1 Naxxar Lions; (15 September 2023); Naxxar Lions 4–0 Santa Lucia; (1 October 2023); Floriana 4–0 Mosta; (13 April 2024); Naxxar Lions 4–0 Valletta; (28 April 2023);
Biggest away win	Balzan 1–7 Ħamrun Spartans; (27 January 2024); Gudja United 0–6 Sliema Wanderers (27 April 2024)
Highest scoring	Balzan 1–7 Ħamrun Spartans; (27 January 2024)
Longest winning run	Ħamrun Spartans; (8 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Floriana; Ħamrun Spartans; (11 matches)
Longest winless run	Gudja United; (26 matches)
Longest losing run	Gudja United; (16 matches)
	← 2022–23 2024–25 → All statistics correct as of 5 May 2024.

The 2023–24 Maltese Premier League was the 109th season of top-flight league football in Malta. The season began on 15 September 2023 and ended in April 2024. The season saw the relegation of Valletta, one of the most historic teams in Maltese football, for the first time in their history. The Maltese Premier League saw a 22% increase in attendance, with the Floriana versus Ħamrun Spartans match on 27 April drawing the largest crowd of 9,090 spectators.^[1]

Teams

The league consisted of fourteen teams; the top twelve teams from the previous season, and two teams promoted from the 2022–23 Maltese Challenge League. Ħamrun Spartans entered the season as defending champions.^[2] Sliema Wanderers and Naxxar Lions were promoted and returned to the Maltese Premier League after one and five years of absence, respectively. They replaced the 2022–23 Maltese Premier League bottom two teams, Pietà Hotspurs and Żebbuġ Rangers (both relegated after one year in the top flight).

On 13 April 2023, The Malta Football Association announced that four clubs would be relegated to the Maltese Challenge League at the end of the season, as the number of clubs would be reduced to twelve starting from the 2024–25 season. As a result, the Maltese Premier League play-off was scrapped for this season, and this was the last season to consist of fourteen teams.

Location of teams in 2023–24 Maltese Premier League

Team	In league since	City
Balzan	2011	Balzan
Birkirkara	1990	Birkirkara
Floriana	1986	Floriana
Gudja United	2019	Gudja
Gżira United	2016	Gżira
Ħamrun Spartans	2016	Ħamrun
Hibernians	1945	Paola
Marsaxlokk	2022	Marsaxlokk
Mosta	2011	Mosta
Naxxar Lions	2023	Naxxar
Santa Lucia	2019	Santa Luċija
Sliema Wanderers	2023	Sliema
Sirens	2019	St. Paul's Bay
Valletta	1944	Valletta

Venues

On 29 April 2024, the Malta Football Association introduced another stadium, Victor Tedesco Stadium due to the final fixture of the season that played four matches at the same time.

Ta' Qali	Ta' Qali	Paola	Hamrun
Ta' Qali National Stadium	Centenary Stadium	Tony Bezzina Stadium	Victor Tedesco Stadium
Capacity: 16,997	Capacity: 3,000	Capacity: 2,968	Capacity: 1,962

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor (front)	Shirt sponsor (back)	Shirt sponsor (sleeve)
Balzan	Oliver Spiteri	Joma	MBI Group	Visit Malta (Bottom)
Birkirkara	Jose Borg	Nike	McDonald's	Inter Sport (Top)	Visit Malta (Right)
Floriana	Mauro Camoranesi	Joma	Harmont & Blaine, Greens Supermarket		Go & Fun (Right)
Gudja United	Renzo Kerr-Cumbo	Macron	Handy Man, SixSevenEight	Apex Group (Top)	Thomas Smith Insurance Broker (Left)
Gżira United	Andrew Cohen	Joma		Finanzi (Top), Recruit Giant (Bottom), Visit Malta (Bottom)
Ħamrun Spartans	Luciano Zauri	Puma	J. Portelli	Meridianbet (Bottom), Besteam audio (Bottom)	Ta' Fonzu (Right), Tescoma (Left)
Hibernians	Branko Nišević	Joma	Bezzina
Marsaxlokk	Winston Muscat	Joma	1padel		Mr. Fitz Restaurant Marsaxlokk (Left)
Mosta	Joseph Grech	Macron		Teamsport (Bottom)
Naxxar Lions	George Vella	Joma	Brown's, sottozero	Zarb Coaches (Top), Badass, McQueen, Sammut Concrete Supplies (Bottom)	Welbee's (Right), Würth, Centerparc (Left)
Santa Lucia	Alessandro Zinnari	Capelli Sport	Multivend, avanza	Elmo (Top), Konica Minolta (Bottom)	Yellow Army (Left), Levissima (Right)
Sliema Wanderers	Paul Zammit	Adidas	NMGroup, Comeon Group, Xace	Daikin, Zarb Coaches (Bottom)
Sirens	Stephen Damato	Macron	Café del Mar Malta, Welbee's	Arringo (Top), Malta National Aquarium (Bottom)
Valletta	Juan Cruz Gill (Caretaker)	Nike	Iniala	Inter Sport (Top)	Toyotomi, Da Mattia (Left), 5 Beans (Right)

Additionally, referee kits are made by Macron

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Ħamrun Spartans	Branko Nišević	Resign	22 April 2023	Pre-season	Luciano Zauri	29 April 2023
Sirens	Winston Muscat	Resign	28 April 2023		Stephen Damato	24 May 2023
Marsaxlokk	Pablo Doffo	End of Contract	6 May 2023		Winston Muscat	14 June 2023
Floriana	Gianluca Atzori	End of Contract	10 May 2023		Mauro Camoranesi	5 June 2023
Hibernians	Silvio Vella	Mutual consent	1 June 2023		Branko Nišević	17 July 2023
Santa Lucia	Enzo Potenza	Resign	21 June 2023		Alessandro Zinnari	12 July 2023
Gudja United	Ludvic Bartolo	End of Caretaker	29 July 2023		Jesmond Zammit	29 July 2023
Valletta	Thane Micallef	Sacked	2 October 2023	8th	Enzo Potenza	7 October 2023
Birkirkara	Giovanni Tedesco	Resign	26 November 2023	10th	Brian Chetcuti (Caretaker)	26 November 2023
Gudja United	Jesmond Zammit	Sacked	21 December 2023	14th	Renzo Kerr-Cumbo	27 December 2023
Gżira United	Darren Abdilla	Resign	17 January 2024	9th	Andrew Cohen	18 January 2024
Birkirkara	Brian Chetcuti	End of Caretaker	5 February 2024	7th	Jose Borg	5 February 2024
Valletta	Enzo Potenza	Resign	26 February 2024	12th	Juan Cruz Gill (Caretaker)	26 February 2024

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ħamrun Spartans (C)	26	19	5	2	61	16	+45	62	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Floriana	26	18	3	5	53	19	+34	57	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
3	Sliema Wanderers	26	14	8	4	34	12	+22	50	Qualification for the Conference League second qualifying round^[a]
4	Marsaxlokk	26	12	7	7	40	23	+17	43	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
5	Birkirkara	26	9	9	8	28	27	+1	36
6	Naxxar Lions	26	9	8	9	32	35	−3	35
7	Hibernians	26	9	8	9	29	28	+1	35
8	Balzan	26	8	10	8	26	28	−2	34
9	Gżira United	26	9	6	11	38	33	+5	33
10	Mosta	26	7	10	9	19	32	−13	31
11	Santa Lucia (R)	26	8	6	12	25	41	−16	30	Relegation to the Maltese Challenge League
12	Valletta (R)	26	6	9	11	26	31	−5	27
13	Sirens (R)	26	3	7	16	17	50	−33	16
14	Gudja United (R)	26	0	6	20	14	67	−53	6

Source: Malta Football Association
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champions, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions).
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Sliema Wanderers qualified for the Conference League second qualifying round by winning the 2023–24 Maltese FA Trophy. Since they qualified based on league position, the second Conference League first round spot was passed to the fourth-placed team.

Results

Home \ Away	BAL	BIR	FLO	GUD	GŻI	ĦAM	HIB	MAR	MOS	NXR	SLC	SLI	SIR	VAL
Balzan	—	0–3	0–3	2–0	1–0	1–7	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–0	0–0
Birkirkara	1–1	—	1–2	2–0	3–2	3–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–2	1–0	2–2	1–1
Floriana	2–2	2–0	—	5–1	0–1	0–5	2–0	3–2	4–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	3–0	1–0
Gudja United	2–2	1–1	1–1	—	1–6	0–4	0–3	1–1	0–1	2–4	0–4	0–6	1–2	0–3
Gżira United	1–1	0–0	3–1	3–0	—	0–1	0–4	2–4	2–1	1–1	1–2	0–2	1–0	1–1
Ħamrun Spartans	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–0	2–1	—	1–1	1–2	1–1	4–1	4–1	1–1	2–0	1–1
Hibernians	0–2	0–1	0–2	1–0	3–2	1–2	—	0–2	0–0	0–2	3–2	0–1	2–1	2–2
Marsaxlokk	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	—	1–2	5–1	3–0	1–2	3–1	0–1
Mosta	0–2	0–2	0–3	0–0	0–3	0–4	3–1	3–2	—	2–0	1–1	0–3	0–0	1–0
Naxxar Lions	1–1	2–0	0–3	2–1	0–1	0–4	0–0	0–0	0–0	—	4–0	1–4	1–2	4–0
Santa Lucia	0–1	2–2	0–4	1–1	2–1	1–3	0–2	0–3	1–0	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	2–0
Sliema Wanderers	1–0	0–0	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	3–1	—	3–0	1–0
Sirens	1–4	1–2	0–3	2–0	0–4	0–4	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	0–1	—	0–3
Valletta	1–0	0–1	0–2	5–2	1–1	1–2	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–1	2–0	—

Source: Malta Football Association
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of 28 April 2024^[3]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Luke Montebello	Ħamrun Spartans	21
2	Kemar Reid	Floriana	13
2	Yuri	Marsaxlokk	13
4	Andrei Ciolacu	Birkirkara	11
4	Uroš Đuranović	Ħamrun Spartans	11
6	Pablo	Naxxar Lions	10
7	Sunday Akinbule	Marsaxlokk	9
8	Jurgen Degabriele	Hibernians	8
8	Luis Willis Alves Furtado	Floriana	8

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Stadium	Date
Luke Montebello⁴	Ħamrun Spartan	Balzan	7-1 (A)	Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali	27 January 2024
George Blackwood	Balzan	Sirens	4-1 (A)	Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali	6 April 2024
Pablo	Naxxar Lions	Gudja United	4-2 (A)	Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali	6 April 2024
Seth Paintsil⁴	Ħamrun Spartan	Floriana	5-0 (A)	Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali	27 April 2024

Notes

⁴ Player scored 4 goalss

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Georgi Kitanov	Floriana	15
1	Rashed Al-Tumi	Sliema Wanderers	15
3	Marcel Zapytowski	Birkirkara	10
4	Akpan David Udoh	Mosta	9
4	Matthias Debono	Naxxar Lions	9
6	Henry Bonello	Ħamrun Spartans	8
6	Ibrahim Koné	Hibernians	8
8	Danilo Golovic	Balzan	7
	Marko Drobnjak	Marsaxlokk
	Francisco Celio Da Paz Silva Filho	Santa Lucia

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards: 11
- Evans Damian Aneni (Mosta)
Most red cards: 2
- Ali Diakite (Birkirkara)

Club

Most yellow cards: 66
- Sliema Wanderers
Most red cards: 6
- Sliema Wanderers

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
Month	Manager	Club	Player	Club
September	Mauro Camoranesi	Floriana	Kemar Reid	Floriana
October	George Vella	Naxxar Lions	Luke Montebello	Hamrun Spartans
November	George Vella	Naxxar Lions	No Winner
December	Paul Zammit	Sliema Wanderers	No Winner
January	Luciano Zauri	Hamrun Spartans	Luke Montebello	Hamrun Spartans
February			Luke Montebello	Hamrun Spartans

References

^ https://maltadaily.mt/premier-league-sees-22-attendance-increase-in-2023-24/
^ Camilleri, Valhmor (11 March 2023). "Watch: Late goal hands Ħamrun Spartans ninth Premier League title". Times of Malta. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
^ "Tables & Statistics". maltafootball.com. 20 September 2020.

[table_note_res_ECL2Q0.14935062972333-3] Sliema Wanderers qualified for the Conference League second qualifying round by winning the 2023–24 Maltese FA Trophy. Since they qualified based on league position, the second Conference League first round spot was passed to the fourth-placed team.

[1] ttps://maltadaily.mt/premier-league-sees-22-attendance-increase-in-2023-24/

[2] Camilleri, Valhmor (11 March 2023). "Watch: Late goal hands Ħamrun Spartans ninth Premier League title". Times of Malta. Retrieved 9 April 2023.

[4] "Tables & Statistics". maltafootball.com. 20 September 2020.

[1]

[2]

[a]

[3]

v t e 2023–24 in Maltese football
« 2022–23 2024–25 »
Domestic leagues	Premier League Challenge League National Amateur League
Domestic cups	FA Trophy Super Cup
European competitions	Champions League Europa Conference League
List of Maltese football transfers 2023–24

v t e 2023–24 in European men's football (UEFA)
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UEFA competitions	Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round group stage knockout phase Final Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round group stage knockout phase Final Europa Conference League qualifying phase and play-off round Champions Path Main Path group stage knockout phase Final Super Cup UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge Youth League UEFA Champions League Path Domestic Champions Path knockout phase Under-20 Intercontinental Cup
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