Hamrun Spartans

Joseph Portelli took over as president in 2020. The titles of 2024 and 2025 followed.

What that money and momentum bought became clear in Europe. In 2022–23 the Spartans reached the play-off round of the UEFA Conference League, the first Maltese side to get that far, and lost there to Partizan. Three years later they went one better, beating the Latvian side RFS to reach the league phase — no club from Malta had done it before.

The club that did this has been through more than one death. Founded in 1907, it broke up in the 1920s; what was left of it reformed as Hamrun Liberty, which was itself wound up. Only in 1946 did the name Hamrun Spartans reappear in the First Division.

The nicknames come from further back still. Tas-Sikkina means the Knives. Ta' Werwer — roughly, the ones who frighten you — was earned in a match against King's Royal Rifles, when the side turned out in black shirts. Red and black remain the colours.

The 2014 season brought a match-fixing case involving the goalkeeper Andrea Cassar, and the accusation attached itself to the club.

Home is the Victor Tedesco Stadium, in Ħamrun itself, and the derby with Valletta is the fixture the town measures its year by.