Friendly appearance led to Fenech’s omission from squad

Paul Fenech was axed from Malta’s squad for today’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Latvia after he took part in a friendly match for his club only hours after the national team had returned from Israel, Malta coach John Buttigieg revealed yesterday.

“After a 15-hour journey from Israel to Malta, Paul Fenech played a friendly match for his club,” Buttigieg replied when asked to explain his decision to drop the Birkirkara midfielder from his squad on Saturday.

“The game took place about three hours after we arrived back in Malta. This is the only reason why I decided to replace Fenech with Ivan Woods for this match.”

Buttigieg said he had not taken up the matter with Birkirkara coach Paul Zammit after Fenech had informed him that he received a call from his club asking him to play in Friday’s friendly.

Fenech played no part in Malta’s 3-1 defeat to Israel on Thursday and that was probably what prompted Zammit to field the nippy midfielder in Friday’s training match against Division One side Melita.

This latest club-vs-country controversy comes amid widespread reports that newly-elected MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo is planning to overhaul the national teams’ training scheme after the away qualifier against Croatia in November.

The leading Premier League clubs have long requested that their international players train with the club coaches on a daily basis, as is the standard practice in most countries, and it looks like the new Malta FA administration is prepared to heed their calls.