Birkirkara FC are determined to be in the race for the major honours this season after a busy summer during which they overhauled their coaching set-up and squad.
In 2010-11, the Stripes failed to meet expectations as they failed to challenge for any of the major honours. That upset spurred the newly-elected committee to start a mini-revolution.
Patrick Curmi replaced Paul Zammit as first-team coach and the first notable signings were those of Malta midfieder Gareth Sciberras and U-21 international Leighton Grech.
The Stripes also changed their line-up of foreign players and agreed deals for Spanish duo Jorge Mora (goalkeeper) and Moises Avila (striker) and Brazilian defender Rodrigo Perreira.
“I am very pleased with the group we have assembled,” coach Curmi told a news conference at TeamSport outlet in l-Iklin, yesterday.
“I have been in the job for almost two months now and I can notice that the committee is doing their utmost to make this team grow.
“We’ve had some good signings and I’m confident that we will be among the leading challengers.”
Having 12 teams in the top flight inevitably requires a deep squad and Curmi, formerly of Marsaxlokk, is still hopeful of bringing in rein-forcements before the transfer window shuts on Wednesday.
“With an expanded Premier League there are more matches to play, so there will be more injuries and suspensions to deal with.
“I feel it’s key to have a big squad and we’re looking to add one or two other players before the deadline next week,” Curmi said.
Club president Joe Zammit, another newcomer to the Birkirkara FC scene this summer, made no secret of his ambition to see the team flourish and, perhaps, extend their participation in Euro club competitions for a 15th successive year.
“It’s still early days but not-withstanding the various changes we’ve had on and off the field, the team has done pretty well in pre-season,” he said.
“In my view we were unlucky not to progress to the next round of the Europa League. Vlaznia were a strong team but we had our chances to progress and had Moises Avila and Rodrigo Perreira been available for those matches I’m sure the story would have been different.
“This is a valid squad we have at Birkirkara this season. Again, our priority should be to stay with the front-runners and qualify for Europe.”
The Birkirkara head yesterday revealed that in recent weeks he had forwarded a motion to the Premier League Standing Com-mittee wherein he proposed that clubs in the top flight could field as many as five foreigners in the same match.
Zammit’s suggestion failed to win enough backing to put into effect but he still wants more overseas players to play in the Premier League in future.
“We lobbied hard to increase the number of overseas players in the Premier League from four to five but only Mosta and Tarxien were in favour,” Zammit said.
“I think that with more teams in the Premier League, local players available on the market has been restricted to a limited pool now. Increasing the quota of foreigners to five would only help clubs to be more competitive.”