Luxol St Andrew’s will be inaugurating their main stadium next Friday.
The facility, in which the club has invested around Lm350,000 including the artificial turf surface and the floodlighting system, has been laid by Steel & Fence Ltd, under the direction of Mario Attard.
Club vice-chairman Norman Darmanin Demajo told the press yesterday that this was a dream come true for the group of individuals who have always believed in investing in the infrastructure of the club.
He said: “Since we inaugurated our first 5-a-side turf pitch in 1991, we now have five in all. Next Friday we will be proud to add the full size pitch, therefore making Luxol all green. We are therefore providing players with another safe surface made of the most modern artificial turf which is very close to the real grass.
“We hope that this new facility will also be used by other sporting organisations. In fact, we are already in talks with the Youth Football Association so that our stadium will be in their programme next season,” he said.
Darmanin Demajo added that he hoped other clubs would also have their own stadium in future. “We will be inviting them to visit our facilities. It remains one of our objectives to see all our youngsters playing on turf,” he added.
Fr Hilary Tagliaferro, chairperson of the Youth FA and who has helped Luxol so much in the past, will inaugurate the new stadium on Friday. All the 540 children of the club’s nursery and schools will be taking part in the short ceremony for which the Prime Minister, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Alfred Sant, and the president of the Malta Football Association, are to attend.
The Stadium will have between 600 and 700 seats installed later on, when these will become available. The facilities include three dressing rooms for players, a small one for referees, a bar and an office.
Another Luxol director, Pippo Psaila, said a whole week of tournaments is planned as part of the inauguration of the new pitch. “It will be a manifestation of football, rather than a competition. We have always maintained that we do not want our youngsters here just to win. We want football to be part of their educational process.
“We have managed to recruit a star-studded line-up of fully qualified coaches who include two ex national coaches, four ex national team captains and three ex footballers of the year. This is certainly a feather in the cap of the Luxol board,” he said.
The opening will also include a short match at 7pm between the Old Stars from the club’s nursery, including players of Birkirkara, Valletta and Sliema, among others, and a selection of St Andrew’s FC. It will be followed by another match between the St Andrew’s Under 16 side and the MFA Under 15.