During our ESWAM study visit to Sliema, Malta, in October 2026, one particular place caught my attention. Standing along the Mediterranean coastline, I watched how Exiles Sports Club had turned the sea itself into a sporting environment. Floating ropes marked out the swimming area, metal ladders provided access to the water, and just a few metres away, people gathered on terraces overlooking the coastline. There was no conventional swimming pool, no roof and no elaborate building surrounding the sporting activity. Yet everything needed to bring people together through sport seemed to be there. It made me wonder: why do we so often think about constructing new sports facilities when nature already offers us extraordinary opportunities?
Exiles Sports Club has a history stretching back to 1967, when a group of young Maltese sports enthusiasts established their own waterpolo club. Their first playing area was created directly in the Mediterranean Sea, close to the seventeenth-century St Julian's Tower. Almost sixty years later, that relationship with the sea remains central to the club's identity. What started as a relatively modest initiative has developed into a sporting community with its own facilities, traditions and ambitions. The remarkable thing is that the club's most distinctive asset was never constructed. It was already there, waiting to be used.
Walking past Exiles, I was particularly struck by how naturally sport and everyday life come together. The water is used for swimming and waterpolo, while the surrounding facilities offer space for recreation, hospitality and social interaction. Sport is not hidden inside a building or separated from the city. It is visible, inviting and part of the waterfront experience. For European municipalities facing increasing pressure on available space, this is an important observation. We often discuss the shortage of sports facilities as a question of land, buildings and investment. But perhaps we should also be asking whether we are making sufficient use of the environments that already surround us.
The financial model behind Exiles adds another interesting dimension. The club has historically combined its sporting activities with commercial hospitality operations, creating opportunities to generate income from its coastal location. When its redeveloped facilities opened in 2011, the project reflected a wider Maltese approach to supporting sports organisations through access to infrastructure and opportunities for commercial activity. This can help clubs become more financially sustainable while investing in their sporting programmes. At the same time, it raises an important question: how do we ensure that commercial success continues to serve sport and the wider community rather than gradually taking priority over them?
What makes the Exiles story even more relevant is that the club has also looked beyond its traditional coastal facilities. In January 2025, it began managing the swimming pool complex at the Mediterranean College of Sports in Birkirkara. Through this cooperation, the club can use a heated indoor swimming pool outside school hours, including weekends and holidays. This creates opportunities to expand swimming and waterpolo activities throughout the year, regardless of weather conditions. It also demonstrates another principle that deserves more attention across Europe: making better use of existing facilities through partnerships between educational institutions and sports organisations.
“The most sustainable sports facility might be the one nature has already built.”
The wider European context reinforces the potential of open water. According to the European Environment Agency, 85% of designated bathing waters in the European Union achieved excellent quality in 2025, while 96% met at least the minimum standards. These results reflect decades of environmental investment and demonstrate that cleaner rivers, lakes and coastal waters are becoming valuable assets for public health and recreation. Yet improved water quality alone does not automatically encourage people to become active. Cities must also consider accessibility, safety, facilities and the way these environments connect to everyday urban life.
There are encouraging examples across Europe. Copenhagen has demonstrated how harbour swimming can become part of a city's identity, while other municipalities are exploring opportunities along rivers, lakes and former industrial waterfronts. However, the potential of open water should not distract us from its challenges. Currents, weather conditions, water quality, supervision and emergency access all require careful consideration. Accessibility is equally important. A metal ladder may provide convenient access for confident swimmers, but it does not necessarily make the water accessible to older residents or people with disabilities. Creating inclusive environments requires more than simply opening a stretch of coastline.
There is also the question of public ownership and access. Waterfront sports clubs can bring investment, activity and community life to attractive coastal locations. But when commercial facilities develop alongside sporting activities, municipalities must remain attentive to the public character of the shoreline. Who can enter the water? Who benefits from the facilities? And how can sport organisations contribute to an attractive waterfront without restricting opportunities for others? These are not reasons to avoid such developments, but essential questions when designing them responsibly.
For me, the most valuable lesson from Sliema is not that every European city should establish a waterpolo club in the sea. It is that we need to broaden our understanding of what sports infrastructure can be. A coastline, river, lake or former harbour can become a meaningful place for physical activity when the right conditions are created. Sometimes that requires major investment, but sometimes relatively modest improvements in access, safety, programming and management can make an enormous difference.
Exiles reminded me that an active city is not necessarily the city with the most sports buildings. It is a city that recognises opportunities for movement wherever they exist and makes them available to its people. As municipalities across Europe consider their next investments in sport and wellbeing, perhaps the first question should not be what we need to build, but what we already have.
The sea is our playground. Perhaps it is time we started treating it that way.
Marcel de Visser Member of the board ESWAM