A new year has begun. Six months down the road, the Games for the Small States of Europe will be in full swing in Malta.

Over the coming days, the last remaining factors of the equation will fall into place. The organising committee continues to strive to ensure that the 2003 edition will yield a profit which will then be distributed to all the associations and federations affiliated to the Malta Olympic Committee.

Meanwhile, football enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for the day when the national team chalks up a competitive win.

Over the past few years, the national squad has been going through a bleak patch, and although some encouraging results were registered in friendly encounters, the fact remains that our national team has one of the poorest track records in Europe.

PBS sports reporter Simon Farrugia recently travelled to the United Kingdom where he tracked down three players of Maltese descent who are currently playing for clubs in Scotland and England.

The debate always centres on whether the MFA is on the look-out for such available talents.

I honestly have my reservations as to whether the local football governing body is doing its homework thoroughly.

Judging by the number of Maltese emigrants living in England, there should be other players there who would be eligible to don the national jersey.

Chances are that such players would also be eligible to play for another national team such as Wales and Northern Ireland and if Malta does not snap up their services before these countries do, we would have shot ourselves in the leg.

I am not saying that we should embark on a scouting mission the world over in the hope of recruiting second or third generation Maltese footballers for our national team.

However, we should at least make sure that any players on the shopping list are tapped.

Simon Vella, who plays for Airdrie in Scotland, has already turned out for the national team but has somehow been left in the cold lately.

Airdrie ply their trade in Scotland's Division Two but I must say that I was impressed with the set-up of this small club.

Our top flight clubs can only dream of having a stadium like Airdrie's one which is equipped with all necessities including a board room.

Instead, they have to make do with headquarters that are housed in decades-old derelict buildings. With very limited cash flow, no television rights and short-lived adventures in European club competitions, the situation hardly looks rosy.

At present, we have three players who have managed to migrate to European leagues.

Michael Mifsud has managed to break into the first squad of Bundesliga side Kaiserslautern and Stefan Giglio has settled well in Bulgaria. Defender Luke Dimech is hoping for an English club to snap up his services after his contract with Shamrock Rovers in Ireland runs out at the end of this month.

Export of talent is indeed a rare achievement for Maltese footballers.

Meanwhile, Iceland and Cyprus have succeeded in promoting their football talent abroad with the result that practically all their national team players are engaged by clubs outside the country.

Since the chances of a European scout spotting local talent is remote, we somehow need to skew the equation around so as to cash in on the nomadic ventures of our grandparents, whose offspring should, in most cases, be eligible to don the red and white shirt of the Maltese national team.

Apart from Simon Vella, Farrugia also caught up with Jonathan Fenech of Blackpool and little-known Ryan Baldacchino of Carlisle. Fenech has already been called up to the Under 19 squad, coached by Mark Miller, and he managed a goal in a UEFA tournament held in Cyprus.

Baldacchino is still hoping to catch the attention of Sigfried Held, the national coach, and the television programme Grand Stand may well turn out to be the catalyst for an eventual call-up

These players know only too well that their chances of progressing in their careers would be considerably boosted if they are called upon for international duty.

Some months back, Kevin Azzopardi of The Times/Sunday Times, journeyed to the land down under and came up with an extensive list of potential players who are all available to play for the Maltese national team.

Having Australian players commuting between Australia and Malta may not exactly be the best of deals as jet-lag does take its toll and players will only be able to travel to Malta some four days before an actual match.

But if a very promising player is ready to turn out for Malta, then the MFA should seriously look into the matter and study video-tapes of his performances or perhaps invite him for a trial before making a decision.

Barren spell

We have six months to assemble our best possible squad that will tackle Cyprus at the National Stadium on June 7.

Our team simply has to win this qualifier to end a barren spell on home soil which has spanned 28 years. For the record (statistics taken from www.maltafootball.com), our national team has played 67 European qualifiers, scoring a mere 29 goals and conceding a staggering 197.

In 40 years of participation, our national team managed two victories (over Greece and Iceland) and eight draws.

Our last positive result in a European qualifier dates back to April 1995, a 1-1 draw against Belarus. Truly incredible!