Football has a surprisingly long history in Malta. The Malta Football Association was founded in 1900 making it one of the oldest in Europe. In 1972, Malta hosted their first qualifying matches for a FIFA World Cup™ and teams from all over the world made their way to this Mediterranean island.

On-the-pitch success has largely eluded them however. To date, their one and only victory in 62 qualifying matches was a 1-0 away win in May 1993 in Estonia during the qualifiers for USA 1994. But that's not to say that the picture is one of complete gloom. The island nation can pull out some exceptional results from time to time: witness the draws they achieved at home in the Germany 2006 qualifiers against Croatia (group winners) and Bulgaria.

Yes, Malta finished bottom of the section, as they had done in the qualifiers for 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan (when their only point gained came in a home draw with Czech Republic) but they are always capable of rising above their lowly ranking and surprising the big boys.

That was maintained under Dusan Fitzel, with another highlight coming in September 2007 with a 2-2 draw in Ta' Qali against Turkey in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. However, the Czech coach was replaced by ex-Malta defender John Buttigieg on 22 July 2009 due to the former's health problems.