Gżira seek promotion after years of trying
Maroons to venture in basketball with former champions Athleta
BOV Division One side Gżira United FC have set their sights on winning promotion to the Premier League.
Last season, the Maroons came agonisingly close to making a return to the top flight when they played Mosta in a relegation/promotion play-off. However, a 2-0 defeat shattered their dreams for a third successive year.
That disappointment did not deter Gżira’s resolve. Instead, they embarked a more determined assault to reach their objective at the end of the season.
In recent weeks, the Maroons strengthened their squad with 10 new players, namely Sacha Borg and Brooke Farrugia, from Floriana, Jonathan Bondin (Qormi), Beppe Muscat, Luca Martinelli and Clive Psaila from Sliema Wanderers, former Pietà Hotspurs and Valletta striker Rafael Kooh-Sohna, Luis Zome, Alan Abela (both Żejtun Corinthians) and Christian Caruana (Valletta).
“For the past three seasons we have tried without success to win promotion to the Premier League,” club president Sharlon Pace told a news conference yesterday.
“In the off-season the committee sat down together and analysed what went wrong in the past campaigns not to repeat the same mistakes.
“I feel that this time we have assembled a very competitive squad that will give us the best opportunity to reach our aim of playing in the Premier League.”
Gżira retained their confidence in coach Darren Abdilla who signed a new two-year-contract. He is determined to repay the club’s faith in him by leading the Maroons to the top two positions in the standings.
“I’m grateful to the club committee for believing in my abilities and I will do my best to see that the team stays in contention for promotion,” Abdilla said.
“Our preparations were very positive and I am looking forward to the start of the new season.
“From what I’ve seen this summer Ħamrun Spartans and Senglea Athletic will be among the major protagonists in the league but one cannot discard teams like Vittoriosa Stars, St George’s and Mqabba, in particular.
“I’m sure that we are bracing ourselves for a difficult season but I feel that we are well prepared.”
The 2015-16 Division One championship gets underway today week. Gżira’s first match is against Lija Athletic.
Stable base
Gżira United FC vice-president Robert Cristiano yesterday re-vealed that they are planning to have their own training facilities in the near future.
“Our financial situation is stable and our wish is to see the club having adequate training facilities which we own,” Cristiano said.
“We believe we can also ex-pand from just being a football club so we are also interested in being active in other sporting ventures. To this aim we have reached an agreement with basketball club Athleta with whom we have amalgamated for the next three years.”
Long-time Athleta coach Joe Galea said: “We have been without a stable base for several years now and this collaboration with Gżira United FC looks just perfect for us.
“We have now rebranded the basketball team as Gżira Athleta.
“These are exciting times for us and we’re confident that this partnership will help us to re-establish ourselves as the top basketball team in the country.”
Last year, Athleta lost the National League final play-offs series to Virtus Cynergi.