Decision to include foreign youngsters ‘strategic’ – San Ġiljan

San Ġiljan were not compelled to field foreign players for their teams to take part in the junior leagues, Brian Schembri, the club’s vice-president and head of the youth development section said in a statement yesterday.

Replying to the article ‘Addressing new problems with long-term solutions’, written by Alex Vella and published in The Times on Tuesday, Schembri said: “I would like to point out that San Ġiljan did not need to include foreign players at junior level to be able to participate in these leagues.

“This choice by the club is purely strategic, in fact as I write, as part of an exchange programme, two of our boys are training in Italy.

“Everyone is free to agree or disagree with the club’s strategy as in the case of the correspondent who deems it a ‘short-term solution’.

“Furthermore, San Ġiljan would have been more than happy to participate in the one-day Under-12 tournament held at the Neptunes pitch but unfortunately no invitation ever reached our club.

“Instead, 11 of our Under-12 boys and nine members of the U-16 squad were training as they regularly do at the National Pool under the guidance of their coaches, following a programme prepared by head coach Marco Risso.

“Another player from the Under-16 team was training with the national Under-19 squad.”