Country Malta Founded 2011 Level on pyramid 1 | Confederation UEFA Number of teams 14 Domestic cup(s) Malta Futsal Knock-Out | |
The Maltese Futsal League, better known as the Gatorade League for sponsorship reasons, is the official futsal league in Malta. It was founded in 2011 and is currently sponsored by Gatorade. The Maltese futsal championship currently consists of 14 teams. It is organised by the Futsal Malta Association and the Malta Football Association. Prior to a decrease in teams, the league used to be known as the Maltese Futsal Premier Division, which was the highest tier, with a promotion and relegation system tied to the Maltese Futsal First Division.
Contents
History
The league was first created in 2011. The highest peak saw 4 divisions with over 70 teams. Teams started decreasing when the Futsal Malta Assocation made things more stringent to make the league more professional.
Eventually with a further decrease in teams, only one division was necessary, which became known as the Maltese Futsal League, as from season 2015/16.
As from season 2016/17, the FMA reopened again to independent teams not part of a football club from within the Maltese football league system.
Format
There are 14 teams which shall play each other once. After this round, the teams will split into the top 6 teams, known as the Elite pool, and the remainder shall play in the Division One pool. The Elite teams play each other once again and the first 4 after this round, enter a knockout play-off stage. The winner of the play off stage enters the UEFA Futsal League cup.