This July: Malta will host the UEFA European U19 Championship

Apr 2 2023

The Malta FA will host the 2023 UEFA European Under-19 Championship from 3 to 16 July, the biggest football tournament to be staged in our country to date.

Malta, who qualify automatically as hosts, will be joined by seven other U-19 national teams, namely Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain, who have advanced to the finals after topping their respective elite round groups.

The draw for the final tournament will take place on 19th April, 2023 at the Manoel Theatre, commencing at 13.00hrs.

The Malta FA previously staged the 2014 U17 EURO, won by England who defeated Netherlands on penalties in the final at the National Stadium. That was the only previous occasion on which a team from Malta played at a UEFA final tournament.

The hosting of a top international football event represents one of the Goals of the Malta FA Strategy 2020-24.

The 2023 UEFA European Under-19 Championship ambassadors are Michael Mifsud and Joseph Mbong.

Michael Mifsud is a Maltese football legend – he is the country’s most capped player with a total of 143 appearances and all-time top scorer for the national team with 42 goals.

Joseph Mbong, who plays for Ħamrun Spartans, is a current Malta international player with 46 appearances for the national team to date. He was also a member of the Malta Under-17 team that featured in the 2014 U17 EURO.

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Italy Has Banned Chat GPT

Apr 1 2023

Italy’s data protection authority has blocked the use of OpenAI’s advanced chatbot, ChatGPT, citing concerns over privacy.

The regulator said it would ban and investigate OpenAI with immediate effect, and added that the company had 20 days to address its concerns or face a fine of up to €20m ($21.7m) or 4% of annual revenues.

OpenAI told the BBC it complied with privacy laws. ChatGPT uses natural language processing to answer questions and can mimic different writing styles.

Millions of people have used the technology since its launch in November 2022, and it was added to Bing last month. Microsoft plans to embed it in its Office suite.

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Drag racing association collects €16,000 for The Malta Autism Centre during charity event

Apr 1 2023

The Malta Drag Racing Association successfully collected the sum of €16,074 during a charity event to raise funds for The Malta Autism Centre.

The event returned to the Hal Far Raceway after a 3-year absence, holding a day of events activities for the entire family on March 31st.

Car enthusiasts and gearheads convened to Hal Far for a jam-packed event featuring everything from drift rides to karting and everything in between to collect funds for the local NGO which provides specialised intervention to individuals on the Autism spectrum of various ages.

One of the event’s organisers, Mario Mifsud, took to Facebook to share his emotions after a very successful event for the motorsport community.

“For once I have no words, I am utterly speechless. Yes I was the coordinator for the MDRA for Charity 2023 and yes I have put a lot of effort in putting together this event. But this was your show. All of you who came a brought your hardware, your toys your passion with you at tha MDRA Malta Drag Racing Hal Far Raceway and the La Reve Karting Track”, he wrote.

Kudos to Malta’s motorsport community for the initiative!

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Photos: LJ Automotive Photography

Car bursts into flames in Zejtun on Saturday morning

Apr 1 2023

This newsroom has been sent footage of a car catching fire on Friday night in Zejtun on Saturday morning.

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The police have since revealed that the driver of the car, a BMW, noticed something unusual whilst he was driving down Triq Vjal 25 ta’ Novembru. The driver pulled over to the side of the road, at which point the car caught fire.

The flames were controlled by local authorities and no injuries were sustained.

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