Tarxien Rainbows

The Tony Cassar Sports Ground holds a thousand people at most, and for a club chasing the Premier League that number stops working fast — Tarxien Rainbows have had to shift their biggest home fixtures to the MFA Centenary Stadium in Ta' Qali just to meet the safety requirements higher divisions demand of a ground.

The name on the badge has moved more than once. The club started out in April 1934 as Rainbows Tarxien, became Little Rainbows a decade later, and in 1946 merged into Hibernians of Paola, staying folded into that arrangement until 1950, when it broke away and stood on its own again. The current name, Tarxien Rainbows F.C., was not settled until 1981.

Which makes the rivalry with Hibernians pointed rather than incidental: the two clubs now meet as opponents in what is known as the Derby of the South.

Promotion has come in waves rather than a straight climb. The Second Division title arrived in 1982-83, again in 2002-03, and again in 2004-05. The 2007-08 season broke that pattern — the First Division title that year sent Tarxien Rainbows up to the Premier League outright. Runners-up in the Challenge League in 2024-25 earned the club another return to the top flight for 2025-26.

Through all of it, the club has kept coming back to the same small ground in Tarxien, even when the games that matter most have to be played somewhere else.