2010–11 Maltese Premier League

Maltese Premier League
Season	2010–11
Champions	Valletta; (20th title)
Relegated	Vittoriosa S.
Champions League	Valletta
Europa League	Floriana
Matches played	132
Goals scored	411 (3.11 per match)
Biggest home win	Valletta 5-0 Hamrun Spartans
Biggest away win	Vittoriosa S. 1–6 Floriana
Highest scoring	Marsaxlokk 6-3 Hamrun Spartans
	← 2009–10 2011–12 →

The 2010–11 Maltese Premier League is the 96th season of the Maltese Premier League, the top-tier football league in Malta. It began in August 2010 and ended in May 2011. Birkirkara are the defending champions, having won their third title last season.

The Premier League consists of two rounds. In the first round, every team plays each opponent twice, once "home" and once "away" (in actuality, the designation of home and away is purely arbitrary as most of the clubs do not have their own grounds), for a total of 18 games. The league then splits into two pools. Earned points are subsequently halved. Teams that finish in positions 1–6 compete in the "Top Six" and teams that finish in positions 7–10 play in the "Play-Out".

On 13 January 2011, the Malta Football Association decided to expand the league to 12 teams as from the 2011–12 season.^[1] Therefore, changes had to be made to accommodate the new number of teams. Thus only one team would be relegated at the end of this season.

Teams

Dingli Swallows and Msida St. Joseph were relegated to the First Division after finishing in the last two places of the Play-Out.

Promoted from the First Division were Marsaxlokk as champions and Vittoriosa Stars as runners-up. Both of these clubs were supposed to take part in last season's competition, but each of them were found guilty in a corruption scandal and were immediately relegated to the First Division.

Venues

Ta' Qali	Ta' Qali	Paola	Hamrun
Ta' Qali National Stadium	Centenary Stadium	Tony Bezzina Stadium	Victor Tedesco Stadium
Capacity: 16,997	Capacity: 3,000	Capacity: 2,968	Capacity: 1,962

Stadia and training grounds

Only a few stadia have the infrastructure needed to host Premier League matches. These are Ta' Qali National Stadium and Centenary Stadium at Ta' Qali, Victor Tedesco Stadium at Ħamrun and Hibernians Ground at Paola. Additional to that, each team has been assigned to a dedicated training ground. On a few occasions, Hibernians and Hamrun Spartans play at their home ground, but otherwise all games are played on neutral ground, rendering "home" and "away" games purely symbolic.

Location of teams in 2010–11 Maltese Premier Division

Team	Location of origin	Ground	Location of ground
Birkirkara	Birkirkara	Infetti Ground	Birkirkara
Floriana	Floriana	Victor Tedesco Stadium	Ħamrun
Hibernians	Paola	Hibernians Ground	Paola
Hamrun Spartans	Ħamrun	Victor Tedesco Stadium	Ħamrun
Marsaxlokk	Marsaxlokk	Marsaxlokk Ground	Marsaxlokk
Qormi	Qormi	Thomaso Grounds	Qormi
Sliema Wanderers	Sliema	Tigné Point	Sliema
Tarxien Rainbows	Tarxien	Tarxien Ground	Tarxien
Valletta	Valletta	Salinos Ground	Valletta
Vittoriosa Stars	Vittoriosa	Marsaxlokk Ground	Marsaxlokk

First phase

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Valletta	18	13	5	0	42	11	+31	44	Qualification for the Top Six
2	Tarxien Rainbows	18	8	5	5	25	22	+3	29
3	Floriana	18	8	3	7	25	20	+5	27
4	Birkirkara	18	7	6	5	25	25	0	27
5	Marsaxlokk	18	5	9	4	25	25	0	24
6	Hamrun Spartans	18	7	2	9	31	36	−5	23
7	Sliema Wanderers	18	5	7	6	22	26	−4	22	Qualification for the Play-Out
8	Qormi	18	5	6	7	22	26	−4	21
9	Hibernians	18	3	6	9	23	33	−10	15
10	Vittoriosa Stars	18	2	5	11	20	36	−16	11

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champions, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions). Teams ranked 1 through 6 qualified for the championship pool, teams ranked 7 through 10 played in the relegation pool. Earned points were halved and taken over to the respective pools.

Results

Home \ Away	BIR	FLO	HIB	HAM	MRS	QOR	SLI	TAR	VAL	VIT
Birkirkara	—	0–2	3–1	2–0	2–5	1–4	2–2	0–0	2–2	1–1
Floriana	0–1	—	1–3	3–1	0–1	4–3	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–0
Hibernians	1–2	1–1	—	3–4	2–2	0–0	0–0	3–1	2–2	1–2
Hamrun Spartans	1–1	1–2	2–4	—	2–3	2–1	3–2	3–1	0–2	2–0
Marsaxlokk	2–0	0–3	2–2	2–1	—	0–1	0–0	2–4	0–2	2–2
Qormi	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–3	2–2	—	0–0	2–1	0–4	2–2
Sliema Wanderers	1–4	0–1	4–0	3–1	1–1	0–0	—	1–1	1–4	4–3
Tarxien Rainbows	0–0	3–1	2–0	3–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	—	0–2	1–0
Valletta	3–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	4–0	5–2	—	3–0
Vittoriosa Stars	0–1	1–6	2–0	2–3	1–1	2–4	0–1	0–1	2–3	—

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second phase

Top Six

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	VAL	FLO	BIR	MRS	TAR	HAM
1	Valletta (C)	28	18	10	0	59	17	+42	42	Qualification for the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League	—	3–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	5–0
2	Floriana	28	14	5	9	46	32	+14	34	Qualification for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League^[a]	1–1	—	3–0	1–1	5–1	2–0
3	Birkirkara	28	11	9	8	42	40	+2	29	Qualification for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League^[a]	0–1	1–5	—	2–0	3–0	2–2
4	Marsaxlokk	28	9	11	8	45	43	+2	26		0–1	4–0	1–4	—	2–4	6–3
5	Tarxien Rainbows	28	10	7	11	41	45	−4	23		0–1	1–2	1–3	0–1	—	3–3
6	Hamrun Spartans	28	7	6	15	44	66	−22	16		1–1	0–2	1–1	2–4	1–4	—

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champions, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions). Points earned in the first round have been halved and rounded up.
(C) Champions
Notes:

^ Floriana won the 2010–11 Maltese FA Trophy competition. Therefore, Floriana and Birkirkara qualify for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.

Play-Out

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation	SLI	QOR	HIB	VIT
7	Sliema Wanderers	24	10	7	7	37	31	+6	26		—	4–1	0–1	2–0
8	Qormi	24	7	7	10	37	43	−6	18		0–4	—	5–2	2–2
9	Hibernians	24	6	6	12	34	46	−12	17		2–3	4–3	—	2–1
10	Vittoriosa Stars (R)	24	3	6	15	26	48	−22	10	Relegation to the 2011–12 Maltese First Division	1–2	1–4	1–0	—

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champions, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions). Points earned in the first round have been halved and rounded up.
(R) Relegated

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[2]
1	Alfred Effiong	Marsaxlokk	17
2	Terence Scerri	Valletta	16
3	Gaetan Spiteri	Hamrun Spartans	14
4	Daniel Nwoke	Floriana	13
4	Jean Pierre Mifsud Triganza	Sliema Wanderers	13
6	Daniel Mariano Bueno	Tarxien Rainbows	11
6	Denni	Valletta	11
8	Sergio	Tarxien Rainbows	10
9	Michael Galea	Birkirkara	9
	Emiliano Lattes	Birkirkara	9
	Ivan Woods	Floriana	9