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2nd Tipsport Malta Cup 2020
Tipsport Malta Cup was created as an extension - the finals of the largest winter tournament in the Czech Republic, the Winter Tipsport League. After twenty years of our winter tournament, the organizers have decided that it is time to move the domestic winter football tournament in a "world" direction. They wanted to send the best Tipsport League teams to a training camp in an exotic destination, where they could train well and play a training tournament on the spot.
Almost all top professional clubs from Central Europe travel to seaside destinations in the winter, which is why we believed in the variant of the final tournament in the Mediterranean from the beginning. "We wanted to bring something new to the tournament and to attract. To have the opportunity to train and play against top foreign teams in mild, subtropical climate on perfect natural pitches seemed like an ideal proposition. And it has worked! The tournament is sought after by the best Czech and Slovak tams and is gaining interest of the top teams from other European football nations. Which in turn makes the Tipsport Malta Cup more and more attractive for all the participants, including media" says Tipsport Head of Communications Václav Sochor.
“We can only do this because of the great support and help we get from the Maltese side. The Malta Tourism Authority, Malta Football Association and personally Carlo Micaleff and Helmut Amhof have been great and reliable partners to us and really made the TMC happen,” says Tipsport Head of Sponsoring Lubomír Ježek.
Malta is a traditional football country, and it turned out during the first year of Tipsport Malta Cup that it is also a great place for winter training for Central European clubs. After the first and second Czecho-Slovak years, the organizers from Tipsport and the MFA Sports plus expanded the tournament to an international event when the Austrian club FC Swarovski Tirol Wattens took part (and actually won the tournament). "And in this international form, the Malta Cup seems to us the absolute most interesting option. The next, fourth year will be played by clubs from four European countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Denmark,” praises Lubomír Ježek from Tipsport.
Malta's sporting event of the year
The gala evening announcing the results of the 2nd Tipsport Malta Cup 2020 was attended by players from all four clubs, implementation teams, journalists, organizers, as well as representatives of the Maltese Football Association, the local tourist headquarters, Air Malta and other organizations. Maltese Tourism Minister Julia Faruugia Portelli also accepted the invitation. The team captain Daniel Pudil took over the cup for the best team of the tournament from the workshop of the Central Bohemian glassworks Rückl Nižbor from Mladá Boleslav.
"Ital" Jankulovski is a brand in Malta
Many young talented football players took part in the Tipsport Malta Cup, but there was another legend in the field of function in the background of the teams. Baník Ostrava, the sports director of the club, is also a winner of the Champions League, Marek Jankulovski, who did not escape the attention of Maltese fans and often turned to him for a joint photo. The Italian League is popular in Malta and Mark is well remembered by fans here from his time in AC Milan. Jankulovski praised the concentration camp in Malta, which Baník had already prolonged at his own expense for a few more days: You have exactly one minute time on the field, also in the gym, there is confusion. There were seven teams at the hotel at once. There is no such danger in Malta, there is peace of mind. In addition, the course does not suffer so much from all-day work and the lawns are in 100% condition. ”The Silesian Club even extended its stay and completed all foreign training on the island in the Mediterranean.
"Heat is important for the health of players, and there is natural grass. First-class hotels with the necessary facilities for athletes - wellness, swimming pools, gyms, even with great food, ”praised Baník midfielder Adam Jánoš.
In the center of media interest
The attractive cast of the Tipsport Malta Cup attracted a lot of media attention. Twenty journalists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and others from Malta were accredited for the tournament. In addition to the most important sports media (daily Sport, Šport.sk, Sport.cz), the staffs of TV Nova, Prima, ČT and Markíza also came to Malta, as well as journalists from the press agency TASR, Deník, MfDnes, Nova čas, Aktuálně.cz and others. . They published a total of 265 reports and articles during the tournament alone, and their number continues to grow.
Lawns green and lush
Malta is one of the poorest countries on the water. You will look for rivers there in vain, and there are practically no other freshwater resources. And you can't just rely on precipitation. Winter is rainy, but summer is very dry, which indicates the number of almost 300 sunny days a year. Sea desalination technology has liberated the earth. And salt water is of course enough around the island.
This was an important prerequisite for Maltese to be able to think about quality football pitches as well. The playgrounds are in great condition, in the highest quality beautiful green and fresh. In winter, the climatic conditions for grass growth are even more favorable and the lawns are even denser than in summer.
At the same time, the original idea of organizing the Tipsport Cup went a few thousand kilometers further to Dubai or Oman. After all, the next World Cup in Qatar is waiting for us, and the local football general is about promoting with the participation of clubs from European football countries. Nevertheless, cooperation with local officials stalled until the Arab journey eventually fell. We have rejected the popular Turkey because the winter is slowly becoming crowded and Spain and Portugal are expensive. And then Malta appeared. The smallest member state of the European Union, with ubiquitous English and a pleasant climate. The local government was again very interested in the participation of foreign teams, and the Ministry of Tourism is directly involved in promoting the tournament.
The Mining Trail in Malta is 60 years old
Few really remember that Baník spent about a month on a Maltese tour more than sixty years ago. It was a huge event for everyone from Baník at that time. Get to Malta! This was almost unattainable for a normal person. It was December 1958. Not even the twenty-member expedition of Baník Ostrava boarded a train, later a plane and set out on an adventure. The team led by coach Jaroslav Vejvoda was supposed to compete in Malta, especially with the local teams, but played against the German Fürth, for example. Today, only two living witnesses, Zdeněk Kosňovský and Zdeněk Stanco, remember the tour at that time. They both agree that they were quite surprised at how good football Maltese teams played. It was played by a lot of Italians and Englishmen at the time, so it was no wonder.
What they agreed on was the poor quality of the playgrounds at that time. It was actually just desert sand. It was very slippery there, with the football boots they brought there at the time, they were like on the rink. Today, footballers in Malta do not have to worry about that.
At that time, the local newspapers also wrote extensively about Baník's trip to Malta. Especially the Times of Malta. Only a few international matches were played at the time, and the presence of Ostrava footballers was an event for Malta. "Local people went to watch the matches in thousands. And they kept singing. Show. The whole stadium! We haven't experienced that until then. They were in a trance from us, we were from their land. From that port and the number of English submarines that were moored there at the time, simply from everything, "say the witnesses of the trip, Zdeněk Kosňovský and Stanco.
