BALA Town will travel to take on Valletta FC of Malta in the first qualifying round of the Uefa Europa League later this month.

Following the draw in Nyon, Switzerland on Monday, Colin Caton’s men will now prepare to play their one-legged tie at the Centenary Stadium, in the capital city on 27 August.

Valletta are a semi-professional side who compete in the Maltese Premier League, having previously won 25 league titles, 14 FA Trophies and a record 13 Super Cups.

Their most recent league title win was in the 2018-2019 season - but last season they were runners-up to Floriana, who pipped them them to the title by just three points.

Bala qualified after finishing third in the curtailed Cymru Premier campaign, behind new champions Connah’s Quay Nomads, and runners-up The New Saints.

“We are focused on being ready for the European trip,” Lakesiders’ manager Colin Caton told the club’s website.

“It’s six out of the last eight years that we’ve made it into European competition, which is magnificent. I don’t think there’s many teams who can compete with that.

“We aren’t just a team on the field, but we are a team off it, with the committee, the team of supporters, and everybody who wears the Bala Town badge. We are all one.

“I’d like to thank everyone who was involved with the Club for their time and effort over the season, and I’m glad we’ve had our just rewards for a really hard season.”

Valletta have a long history in European competitions, having taken on giants such as Inter Milan, Leeds United, Juventus and Rangers. They have faced Welsh opposition before, beating Barry Town in the Uefa Champions League in 1999, but losing against Newtown in the Europa League in 2015.

It will be the sixth time that Bala have played in Europe, having had first qualifying round defeats, on aggregate, to Levadia Tallinn of Estonia in 2013; Differdange of Luxembourg in 2015; AIK of Sweden in 2016; Vaduz of Switzerland in 2017 and Tre Fiori of San Marino in 2018.

Caton added: “When news came out that we’d qualified again, we were really happy, as we didn’t know which way that it was going to go. There were lots of twists and turns that could’ve happened, but we were totally happy to qualify, which we felt we thoroughly deserved.

“If we had restarted the season, we’d have been in a great position to push on from third spot, and the mindset of the lads throughout the lockdown was tremendous.”

Meanwhile the draw for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League was also made today in Nyon, where Connah’s Quay discovered who they will play should they get past Sarajevo in the first qualifying round.

The Cymru Premier champions' reward for progress will be an away tie against either Dynamo Brest of Belarus or Astana of Kazakhstan.

In other Europa League ties, The New Saints were seeded for the draw and will play home against MŠK Žilina of Slovakia in their one-legged match.Iif Barry Town United can eliminate NSÍ Runavík in the preliminary round, they’ll set up an encounter with Aberdeen, of the Scottish Premier League, in the next round.