2021-22: First Date with the Champions League

After a couple of flirts in previous seasons, coming as close as the Playoff stage, this season the final barrier between us and the group stages finally succumbed to our efforts, and after beating Slovenia's Domzale (5-0 agg), Ireland's St. Pat's Athletic (5-1 agg), and finally the Slovakian side MSK Zilina (2-0 agg), we ended up in the hat for the Champions League draw. At this stage we were by no means expecting an easy draw, and we were pitted against Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, and CSKA Moscow.

The campaign went off to a blistering start, controlling the whole first game, and dispatching CSKA easily with 2 goals to nil at our very own Mdina Knights Stadium. A tough tie followed away to Atletico Madrid, where, after going down 0-1 and battling valiantly by throwing everything we had at them to try and restore parity, we eventually conceded again late on, to lose 0-2. Another home tie, against English Premier League runners-up Tottenham followed, and it was another vibrant display from a young Mdina Knights side, coming twice from a goal down to go in 2-2 at half-time. However, a second-half burst from Tottenham saw us concede again, after which we simply could not find another reply.

The second legs saw us fall slightly off the remarkable pace we had set in the first three games, first losing 2-0 at White Hart Lane in London, then another 2-0 in -6°C Moscow against CSKA, and finally another 0-2 defeat at home to Atletico Madrid. So it was that we finished bottom of our group, however just one point behind CSKA, who went on to compete in the Europa League knockout stages.

Meanwhile, besides our European endeavours, domestic affairs were all coming up roses again. Although an early loss to Tarxien saw us end a 48 match unbeaten League run, we then went on to set record amounts of points garnered and goals scored with 77 points (beating the previous 76) and 78 goals (beating the previous 69), although we did concede 10 goals, four more than the previous year. The FA Trophy unsurprisingly found its way back into our ever-growing trophy cabinet.

On the rankings side: the Premier League moved up yet another 35 places to 107th, while Mdina Knights moved up 76 places to 183rd in the European Club Rankings. Malta is now rated 28th from the 53 European Nations, still some way off having a team qualify automatically in the Group Stages, but a massive improvement from the 49th of 2017.
A slight improvement in the quality of the Maltese Premier League that I have noticed is that whereas I was awarded £7K for winning my first title, the prize money has been gradually increasing, having been awarded £31K this season.

Yet another expansion in the summer now sees the Mdina Knights stadium hold a massive 16,000 at full-house, turning in somewhere in the region of £400,000 for a Champions League match, which when added with the £7M awarded for participation in the Champions League group stage, have now expanded my bank coffers to £17M

Although this would be enough to buy several star players, this is by no means yet possible, as still only few players have the desire to ply their trade in Malta, and thus we are still resorting to a lot of unknown African players, most of whom would be seeing us as just a stepping stone for greater things elsewhere possibly. However, after building a youth academy, and always improving the youth facilities, I am hoping to have some prospects from within the club in the next few years, and thus also start building for the National side.