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Cristian Muscat, a sports reporter for the Illum Group in Malta spoke to give us the lowdown on Maccabi Tel Aviv's UEFA Champions League second round qualifying opponent, Hibernians FC

by Josh Halickman

 "Hibernians FC won the Malta League title for the 11th time in their history and dominated the 2014/15 campaign with terrific players such as Brazilian Jorge da Silva Pereira who scored 25 goals last season and captain Andrew Cohen who is also on the Malta National team. The club lost prolific Brazilian scorer Edison Luis de Santos who left for South Korea in March and his absence was felt immediately in the squad. He scored 24 goals and combined with Pereira for a lethal 1-2 threat.

hibernians

 Andrew Cohen at 34 years old was voted Malta Player of the Year for the 3rd time around and the boss Branko Nisevic was coach of the year. The squad in general was head and shoulders above everyone else and only lost one match all year long! This is especially true when the league cuts the points lead in half late in the season just as they did a few years ago in Israel. As you may know, the predominant religion in Malta is Roman Catholic and when Hibernians won the championship this past year they went to celebrate on the steps of the famous church in Paola, St. Ubaldesca.

 Two other players of interest are Clayton Failla a Maltese midfielder who was scouted by Italian clubs and Andrei Agius a defender who attracted attention from the Romanian league."

 Muscat also described the difference between the Maltese and Israeli leagues:

"There are very few expectations by the Hibernians supporters in this match as they know that the Israeli team is the better side in many ways. Primarily the Maltese players are semi-pro which means that they go to work everyday and practice in the evening. Even I am a full time teacher and do the sports reporting on the side. You must understand that it is more of an honor for Hibernians to be playing in the UEFA Champions League qualifier and whatever will be, will be.

Unfortunately, people have lost interest in the domestic league. The 18,000 seat National Stadium was packed against Italy when they played a qualifying match here, but a regular league match will bring out an average of 1,500 fans. Hibernians usually draws about 800 spectators and there should be at most 1,500 supporters for the match against Maccabi Tel Aviv as they feel that Maccabi is far superior.

The Malta FA feels that they have made a huge improvement in the league by allowing 7 foreigners per club, but the fans seem to be losing interest as many are afraid that the youth systems will suffer.

On a very positive note however, is that Birkirkara one of the Maltese league teams recently signed Italian star Fabrizio Miccoli and he has already paid dividends for the club. Birkirkara defeated Ulisses FC of the Armenia League in the first round of Europa League qualifying to set up a dream matchup for the club against West Ham of the English Premier League."