Birkirkara FC host a Press Conference

by Ivan Mizzi - 13th October 2010

During a press conference organised today by Birkirkara Football Club, at the Teamsport outlet, the Club's President Mr Karm Galea, presented the new signings for the season. These are Terence Vella, Andrew Decesare, Ryan Harding, Esequeil Lovizon, Manuel Bartolo, Michael Fraser, Simon Zahra and Emiliano Lattes, and Patrick Borg who is returning from a loan spell to Mqabba FC.

Also present on the panel were Club's Vice Presidents Joe Gauci and Andrew Calleja, Club Secretary Mr Gilbert Agius, Head Coach Paul Zammit, and Natasha Vella, representative of the main sponsor - McDonalds.

Mr. Karm Galea opened the conference by explaining the hard work which was done last year, and he said that the Club objectives were those of strengthening the Club's administration and, doing their best to be among the title challengers.

He continued by adding that after the sub-committees were set up, the Club's administration worked much better and provided better co-ordination especially with the women and youths' teams respectively.

He went on by revealing that the Club is close to reach an agreement with the government to turn part of the grounds at the St. Therese College for girls, which is located in Mriehel, into artificial turf pitches, which could be used by the Club as another training grounds besides the Infetti Grounds.

Mr Galea then spoke about the new membership schemes that have recently been launched by the Club. Junior members can now join at a 50% discount, that is €15 per year. VIP members can join for a €100 per year, while getting a range of benefits. He went on to stress the importance of supporters becoming paid members. He did not hide his disappointment that a large town like Birkirkara, with a highly successful team, had less than 300 paid members.

The Club's President said that last season's main honour, the Premier League, was won thanks to hard work and dedication by all the Birkirkara FC clan especially, notably by Head Coach Mr. Paul Zammit, all the players and the technical staff.

He went on to talk about the success that the Birkirkara FC Women Team are making after winning last year's championship and the knock out competition, and now the Super Cup.

Also, he gave a quick summary of what happened this summer as Birkirkara opened on a most positive note after reaching the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and managed to beat MSK Zilina, a team who has managed to advance to the group stage.

He added that this year's objectives are no different than last year's, as the Club wants to challenge for all possible honours.

On a domestic note, the incidents which were caused after the Super Cup final led to four players being suspended which was a drawback for the first three matches.

Mr. Galea mentioned that the support of the sponsors is very important while revealing that the sponsors for this season are Mc Donald's, Team Sport, Powerade, Middle Sea Valletta Life and Laferla Insurance.

Finally, the President concluded his speech by congratulating the MFA President, Mr. Darmanin Demajo while thanking Dr. Joe Mifsud for the work he had done with the Association. Mr. Galea hopes the Mr. Darmanin Demajo will fulfill all his promises of putting the focus on clubs since improvement in the game could only be achieved by starting from club level.

Head Coach, Mr. Paul Zammit opened his speech by thanking everyone including all the players who had left the club and former technical staff members who had worked hard last season to achieve the Premier League title. He also gave special thanks to the President and the rest of the committee for keeping the core of the players at the Club, while managing to strengthen the Club with several players. This season he has a 22 man squad at his disposal following the departure of seven players and the arrival of nine new players.

The head coach mentioned that like any Maltese club which took part in the UEFA competitions this year, the team did not have any break in summer due to the UEFA Champions League commitment. He believes that this issue must be tackled by the Association as it is of utmost importance for the local clubs to be fully prepared for their European football as he consider this as a source of experience from which a club could learn a lot.

On a domestic level, the start of the new premier league campaign was not as he expected due to the fact that there were players unavailable mainly due to suspensions. Zammit showed his disappointment about the incidents that happened after the Super Cup Final, and the performance of his team against Floriana.

Mr. Zammit went on by revealing that players who will be available in the morning were asked to train twice a week in the morning, besides the usual training sessions in the evening.

Mr. Paul Zammit concluded that a club like Birkirkara does deserve to be among the challengers and their main objectives is that always challenging for honours. He said that now after winning the premier league title, things are not easy at all, as he said that they are more difficult since staying at the top is harder then reaching the top.

The press conference was brought to an end by Ms Natasha Vella, who was representing Mc Donald's. She said that McDonald were showing their continuation of their support to sports. She also wished the best of luck to Birkirkara FC for the rest of the season.

Birkirkara FC would like to thank Jonathan Darmanin of Teamsport for his help and hospitality in organising this press conference.

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