2011–12 Maltese Premier League

The 2011–12 Maltese Premier League was the 97th season of the Maltese Premier League, the top-tier football league in Malta. It began on 19 August 2011 and it ended in May 2012. Valletta were the defending champions, having won their 20th 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 22 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 7–12 play in the "Play-Out".

On 13 January 2011, the Malta Football Association decided to expand the league to 12 teams starting with this season.^[1]

Teams

First Division after finishing in last place of the Play-Out last season. This ended a one-year stay in the Premier League for them. Taking their place in the competition are Balzan

, the champions of the Maltese First Division. Balzan are playing in the Premier League after a seven season absence.

Because of the league's expansion for this season, the second- and third-place finishers of the First Division, Mqabba and Mosta respectively, were also promoted to the Premier League for this season. Mqabba return to the top league after a three year absence while Mosta return after five years away.

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

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 2011–12 Maltese Premier Division

[1]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Valletta	22	17	4	1	52	17	+35	55	Qualification for the Top Six
2	Hibernians	22	15	6	1	55	16	+39	51
3	Floriana	22	12	6	4	34	19	+15	42
4	Sliema Wanderers	22	8	11	3	34	24	+10	35
5	Birkirkara	22	11	2	9	34	29	+5	35
6	Balzan	22	9	4	9	28	34	−6	31
7	Qormi	22	9	2	11	36	37	−1	29	Qualification for the Play-Out
8	Mosta	22	6	5	11	23	35	−12	23
9	Mqabba	22	5	5	12	25	43	−18	20
10	Hamrun Spartans	22	5	4	13	31	52	−21	19
11	Tarxien Rainbows	22	5	3	14	26	44	−18	18
12	Marsaxlokk	22	3	2	17	25	53	−28	11

Home \ Away	BAL	BIR	FLO	HIB	HAM	MRS	MOS	MQA	QOR	SLI	TAR	VAL
Balzan	—	0–4	2–2	3–2	2–0^[a]	3–1	1–1	1–2	2–0	2–1	1–0	0–2
Birkirkara	2–1	—	0–1	0–3	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	2–3	1–4
Floriana	3–1	0–3	—	0–0	4–2	4–0	1–2	2–0	2–1	0–1	1–0	0–1
Hibernians	3–1	5–0	1–1	—	5–0	2–1	2–1	4–1	4–0	1–1	2–0	1–1
Hamrun Spartans	1–2	0–4	0–1	1–1	—	6–2	2–2	0–2	2–3	4–2	3–1	0–2
Marsaxlokk	0–1	1–2	0–4	0–2	5–3	—	5–2	0–2	1–2	0–2	2–2	0–2
Mosta	1–0	1–3	2–3	0–2	0–1	0–0	—	3–0	1–0	3–2	2–1	0–3
Mqabba	2–2	2–2	0–1	1–6	2–3	1–0	1–1	—	1–4	0–2	1–1	2–4
Qormi	3–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	3–0	3–1	4–1	0–1	—	1–3	4–1	1–4
Sliema Wanderers	1–1	1–0	0–0	3–3	1–1	2–2	2–0	1–1	3–3	—	3–0	0–0
Tarxien Rainbows	1–2	1–3	1–2	1–2	1–1	2–4	1–0	3–2	2–0	1–1	—	1–4
Valletta	2–0	2–1	1–1	0–2	4–0	5–2	1–0	2–1	3–1	1–1	4–2	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	VAL	HIB	BIR	FLO	SLI	BAL
1	Valletta (C)	32	25	5	2	75	24	+51	54	Qualification for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League	—	1–2	1–1	2–0	3–0	1–0
2	Hibernians	32	22	6	4	74	26	+48	46	Qualification for the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League^[a]	2–3	—	0–1	1–0	2–1	3–0
3	Birkirkara	32	17	4	11	55	37	+18	38		0–2	2–0	—	3–1	1–1	3–0
4	Floriana	32	16	6	10	46	32	+14	29		0–1	0–2	2–1	—	1–4	3–1
5	Sliema Wanderers	32	9	14	9	43	50	−7	23		0–2	1–3	1–4	1–3	—	1–1
6	Balzan	32	9	6	17	36	64	−28	15		2–7	1–4	0–5	0–3	3–3	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation	QOR	MOS	TAR	HAM	MQA	MRS
7	Qormi	32	15	2	15	54	48	+6	33		—	1–4	1–0	6–0	2–1	5–1
8	Mosta	32	10	8	14	45	47	−2	27		2–0	—	0–2	2–2	2–2	5–0
9	Tarxien Rainbows	32	11	3	18	45	54	−9	27		1–2	2–1	—	1–2	1–0	2–4
10	Hamrun Spartans	32	9	7	16	47	71	−24	25		1–0	1–1	0–3	—	0–0	3–1
11	Mqabba (R)	32	9	7	16	40	55	−15	24	Relegation to the 2012–13 Maltese First Division	0–1	1–0	0–5	4–1	—	3–0
12	Marsaxlokk^[a] (R)	32	5	2	25	34	88	−54	8	Relegation to the 2012–13 Maltese First Division	1–0	1–5	0–2	1–6	0–4	—

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[3]
1	Obinna Obiefule	Marsaxlokk / Mosta	34
2	Tarabai	Hibernians	21
3	Clayton Failla	Hibernians	11
4	Moises Avila Perez	Birkirkara	10
5	Joseph Farrugia	Qormi	9
	Denni	Valletta	9
	Alfred Effiong	Valletta	9
8	Danail Mitev	Sliema Wanderers	10
8	Bojan Mamić	Mqabba	8
10	Thiago Mazzitelli	Mqabba	7

2011–12 Maltese Premier League

Teams

Venues

Stadia and training grounds

First phase

League table

Results

Second phase

Top Six

Play-Out

Top goalscorers

References

External links