St Patrick FC may only be deemed to be a modest outfit from the south of the island currently struggling to keep afloat in the BOV Division One championship.

Their achievements mainly feature honours in the lower echelons of the Maltese league but the team from Żabbar is steeped in the history and traditions of the local game and, in fact, the club committee have just launched a programme of events to mark St Patrick FC’s 100th anniversary this year.

Originally, St Pat-rick Club (at times also known as Circolo San Pat-rizio) was established to cater for various social and sporting functions for the people of Żabbar and other localities in the vicinity but focus was mainly put on football, and St Patrick FC, since 1948.

Some football historians con-tend that the link with St Patrick derived from the influence of Irish soldiers who were stationed at the nearby Corradino barracks during World War One.

One of the activities will be attached to St Patrick’s Day on March 17.

On that occasion, a special re-union is planned with the atten-dance of former Saints players, coaches and club administrators along the years.

Other events in programme include exhibition matches and five-a-side tournaments, a series of programmes on community station Radio Hompesch, a re-ception on February 17 and an ex-hibition at the Local Council of-fices between March 1 and 18.

Meanwhile, the club are also planning to revert to the old team shirts for the rest of the year with a special badge, marking the Saints’ 100th year (picture), emblazoned on the front.

Żabbar United donned a black and white outfit way back in 1935 and the club adopted the more popular yellow and black apparel when the team was promoted to the top flight for the first time in 1950.

The anniversary festivities or-ganising committee is under the chairmanship of Alfred Portelli, a former St Patrick FC president between 1979 and 1984.

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