Football in Malta : 14 : how the crowd did roar

Abstract

Before continuing with the saga of Malta's magnificent debut into the international arena, one goes back a couple of years when an invitation arrived for Malta to send a team to compete in the famous international tournament at San Remo. With the age limit fixed at nineteen, players like Cini, Buttigieg, Eddie Mizzi, and Sultana, could not be roped in, but the selected squad laboured hard in the heat on the turf at Marsa. Harder still was their mode of travel, on deck of the ferry "Westminster" followed by a racking eighteen hours in a packed train to Rome. After a twenty-hour rest, the team entrained for San Remo at ten at night and arrived at nine in the morning. Next day the team went down one-nil through a penalty goal for an unnecessary penalty against First Vienna - this was going to cost them the qualification into the quarter finals, and two days later a more than creditable one-all draw was achieved against the holders of the tournament the Carlin Boys of San Remo. Tributes were paid to the team, one coming from that star player Meazza who was coaching the Inter boys at the moment.