Youth FA Annual Presentation Night 2010/11

The Youth Football Association hosted its Annual Presentation Night for the 2010-2011 season on Thursday at The Palace Hotel in Sliema. During the very well attended event, the nursery officials had the opportunity to mingle socially with each other and meet personally with the YFA and MFA Officials.

Fr. Hilary Tagliaferro, started his speech by thanking the Malta FA, in particular the President, Norman Darmanin Demajo and the CEO, Bjorn Vassallo for being so generous with the YFA during the last season, especially by providing a home for youth football in Ta’ Qali. He also thanked all the nursery officials, coaches and players who attended this event, a record number of attendees, which augurs well for the forthcoming season.

The Youth FA President reminded those present that the 2011-2012 season also marked the introduction, thanks to the co-operation and assistance of the Technical Centre, of the new ‘U/13 In?obb il-futbol’, which should not be treated as a competition, but as a tool to assist these young players, at a strategic age to make the step up and improve their talents.

Fr. Hilary emphasised that triumph is not measured in the amount of trophies won at the end of the season, but by assisting our young players in becoming better men, and nurturing their talents, with good administration, dedicated and licensed coaches, discipline and hard work.

The Youth FA President concluded his speech by thanking the sponsors, APS Bank, Gatorade (Farsons) and Panini (Anastasi) and revealed that the fixtures for the whole forthcoming season for the APS Bank Under 17 and Under 15 leagues, will be published shortly, as promised, thanks to the dedicated work of the newly appointed Fixtures Board.

The Malta FA President started his speech by retaliating the Association’s vision and priorities to assist the Grassroots level as this is the basis and essence of the beautiful game. Norman Darmanin Demajo reminded those present that a year ago during this same event, a couple of days after his election as MFA President, he revealed his dream to give a home in Ta’ Qali to youth football, which was duly delivered last March.

He continued that the emphasis for this season will be to continue assisting the technical aspects of the game, urging the coaches to make use of the open learning centre, and to continue their own professional education and that the MFA will soon make available the science centre in Ta’ Qali, to further improve the level of our players.

Mr. Darmanin Demajo also reminded those present that over the last months the Malta FA has invited over some very experienced Italian coaches in order to gauge our level at all age groups, and revealed that they were very impressed, especially with the talent pool in the younger levels. These same Italian coaches were also responsible for the transfer of two Under 17 National team players to the Italian club, AS Livorno. He also revealed that one of these coaches will be engaged with the MFA, with the sole intention of passing on his vast experience our nursery coaches.

The Malta FA President asserted that we need to continue improving and pressing on three imperative sectors in order to move further ahead: Infrastructure, enabling all clubs and nurseries to have adequate training facilities, dedicated administrators, the unsung heroes in their home clubs/nurseries and nurturing further respect and values.

Next on it was the turn for the highlight of the evening, the presentation of the various awards (listed below) by Fr. Hilary Tagliaferro (YFA President), Norman Darmanin Demajo (MFA President), Vigo Micallef (MFA Vice President), Robert Gatt (Technical Director) and Mr. Noel McCarthy and Mr. Patrick Aquilina, APS Bank Officials.

Under 17
Section A: Winner – Valletta. Runner-Up – Birkirkara
Section B: Winner – Pembroke. Runner-Up – Rabat
Section C1: Winner – Msida. Runner-Up – Zebbug
Section C2: Winner – Birzebbugia. Runner-Up – Mqabba
Section C3: Winner – Dingli. Runner-Up – Sirens
Good Causes Fund Trophy: Winner – Valletta. Runner-Up – Pieta
APS Centenary Cup: Winner – Valletta. Finalist – Paola Hibs
Best Player: Terrance Agius (Pieta H.)
Good Conduct Award Winner – Luqa

Under 15
Section A: Winner – Melita. Runner-Up – St. Andrews
Section B: Winner – San Gwann. Runner-Up – Pembroke
Section C1: Winner – Kirkop. Runner-Up – Sirens
Section C2: Winner – Mgarr. Runner-Up – Zurrieq
Section C3: Winner – Zebbug. Runner-Up – Birzebbugia
Good Causes Fund Trophy: Winner – St. Andrew’s. Finalist – Melita
Best Player: Jurgen Degabriele (Paola Hibs)
Good Conduct Award: Winner – Sirens. Runner-Up – Xghajra