The changing geography of football venues in Malta

Abstract

Football in Malta has existed since the late 19th Century, and over this 130 year period many changes have occurred within the sport in terms of both quality and structuring. One of the most important parts of any sport is the venue itself and this is often overlooked in the Geography of Sport. Across the Maltese Islands one can notice that almost every settlement is equipped with Football Venues for both local clubs and the general population to make use of. This dissertation aims to understand the reasoning behind the location of Football Venues across the Maltese Islands. Many variables will be examined over the course of this dissertation with the three main components being; demographic, geographic and time-space analytical data, the latter conducted using Distance-Time Graphs. The purpose of this is to see whether there are any geographical patterns emerging about the distribution of Football Venues across the Islands. The study concludes that patterns of Football Venues are related to the distribution of the local population. As well as this, the dissertation shows that over time, the geographies of the Football Venues and their surrounding areas have altered slightly. Finally, the third conclusion of this report is that as transport methods start to improve technologically, the distribution of venues expands outside of the traditional venues located in the Northern and Southern Harbour Districts.