The Malta Football Association has extended the suspension of domestic football until at least April 5, the local governing body of domestic football announced on Tuesday.
The new dates were issued by the local governing body after a meeting by the Bureau who discussed the decisions and the directives issued by UEFA following the videoconference meetings with the 55 member associations.
Last Friday, the Malta FA had suspended domestic football for ten days, with the suspension expiring on Sunday. But now, the governing body said that it was extending that suspension by a further three weeks.
“In light of the evolving situation concerning COVID-19, the Malta FA Bureau has decided to extend the suspension of all domestic football competitions until April 5, 2020 with the situation being kept under constant review,” the MFA said in a statement.
“Videoconference meetings with representatives of the clubs in all divisions and other stakeholders will be held this Friday.
The Malta FA Bureau has also decided to postpone the domestic club licensing deadline, initially set for June 6, 2020, while UEFA is also expected to postpone its deadline on overdue payables, set as at March 31, 2020.”
The MFA said that UEFA announced that all UEFA competitions and matches (including friendlies) for clubs and national teams for both men and women have been put on hold.
“The UEFA EURO 2020 Play-off matches, scheduled for the end of March, will now be played at the start of June, subject to a review of the situation. The June international window will take place as planned so far,” the statement said.
“Consequently, the Malta Under-21 team’s UEFA European Championship qualifying matches against Ukraine and Finland, scheduled to take place at the Gozo Stadium later this month, have been postponed to June.”
The Malta FA had already announced that Malta’s friendly matches against Gibraltar on March 26 and Azerbaijan on March 30 at the National Stadium have been called off.
The 2020 MFA Awards event, originally scheduled to take place on May 15, 2020, has been postponed to a later date.
“While reiterating that the health and well-being of all is the number one priority, the Malta FA renews its appeal to the general public to follow the advice and instructions given by the health authorities,” the statement concluded.