The English FA is to sponsor a new Malta FA Trophy, as it did when the first FA Trophy was handed to the Malta Football Association.

Malta's new FA Trophy is expected to cost some £25,000 [€31,000] and will be manufactured by Thomas Lyte, the firm behind the English FA Cup, tennis' Davis Cup, golf's Ryder Cup and the Webb Ellis trophy handed to the winners of the rugby world cup.

The proposal for a new trophy was discussed last year by MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo and his English counterpart Greg Dyke.

Mr Darmanin Demajo told an MFA Council meeting today that  the time has come to replace the current trophy, which was donated to the local governing body in the 1930s.

He said the aim was to preserve the old cup, adding that the new trophy would incorporate a lot of features of the original one.