Champions Birkirkara FC yesterday presented their four new foreigners for the coming season.

Addressing the press, chairman Victor Zammit said the club was working hard the past month, despite the World Cup, to try and get reliable replacements for the foreigners of last season, none of whom had their contracts renewed for various reasons.

As is well known, midfielder Precious Monye was released because of medical reasons, goalie David Simon for financial reasons, and defender Emil Yanchev for technical reasons.

He said he had worked hand in hand with several friends abroad, among them Nicola Bignetti, a director of Swiss club Bellinzona.

He then went on to mention the four players who are:

Polish goalkeeper Andrzej Bledzewski, who has played 192 Polish first division matches and was also captain of the Polish U-21 team in the past. He also played for Poland’s national team on a few occasions. The clubs he played for included the once mighty Gornik Zabrze.

Italian midfielder Angelo Paradiso who had a career in Italy’s Serie A, B and C and had been voted as most promising player in Italy, together with Andrea Pirlo, in 1999. In the Serie A, he played for Lecce, but he was also on the books of famous club Napoli (Serie C) after having moved from Teramo. He has also played for Cesena, Ravenna, Lucchese, Carrarese, Pisa and Chieti before coming to Malta.

Guido Gallovich is a central defender who Zammit described as similar to their former Romanian defender Lucian Dronca. The past season he was a regular player with Triestina in the Italian Serie B.

The fourth player is Sbai Hatim, a Moroccan with a French passport who last played for Bellinzona before moving on to Nimes in France. He is a flank player and has played for the Moroccan Under 21 side in the past.

Zammit reiterated that the Stripes have been hit hard by injuries since the end of last season. “In this week’s matches, we were forced to play several youngsters. Now we hope to recover some of the injured players for Tuesday’s match against Torshaven, although we have been given another great setback with the news that Michael Galea may be ruled out of the game for a lengthy period due to a recurring foot injury (fracture),” he said.

Zammit said that it was a pity that the MFA did not help much in the preparation of the teams for these European club matches. He added: “In these matches we are allowed to make use of five foreigners. But when it comes to local competitions we are allowed only three. When one considers that the MFA insists that the Euro Challenge Cup is considered to be a sound preparation for the European club competition matches, then does it make sense that we cannot make use of all our foreigners, as was the case on Wednesday, when it was possible for us to have included all four of them?”

The Stripes are now going to propose changes to the rules in this sense and they will also be proposing that the local League starts at the end of September to run until the end of June, so that teams taking part in the Champions league and the UEFA Cup will be better prepared for such commitments. “This year, for example, we had a very interesting draw, Torshavn of the Faroe Islands, with the prospect of a lucrative clash with Turkey’s Fenerbahce in the second round. It is a fact that our opponents have already played several league matches. We are sure they will be better prepared physically. But we will still be doing our very best to overcome this obstacle despite all the difficulties that we have encountered,” he added.

Zammit also said that the club, through Malta’s representative in the UEFA Club Forum, Birkirkara’s own John Borg, will be requesting UEFA to show more solidarity with clubs taking part in the first qualifying round so that these will be able to register their players before the 1 July date for such transfers to be effected. “That is one other reason we could not make use of the foreigners in the first match, as their International Clearance Certificate had not yet arrived,” said Zammit.

Coach Stephen Azzopardi lamented the fact that the squad was decimated at present. “For Tuesday’s encounter, we are trying to recover some players so that we may have at least 11 established players on the field of play. We have been very unlucky with so many injuries. Now comes Michael Galea’s confirmation that he may be out for several weeks. There seems to be no stop to these injury problems at our club.

“On Tuesday, we should have Lino Galea, George Mallia and Roderick Sammut fully recovered while we are still hoping that Mark Anthony Bonnici, Jean P. Mifsud Triganza and Julian Holland will be declared fit to play. Matthew Calascione is also back and will be included. He had been abroad. Definitely out of Tuesday’s match are Adrian Ciantar, Roderick Briffa, Antoine Zahra and Etienne Barbara, who is still being treated by the club physio and Dr David Attard, for an end-of-season injury last term,” said the coach.

Zammit also explained the situation over rumours circling around that Barbara is quitting the club, possibly to Sliema. “The situation remains as it was at the end of last season. Barbara is a Birkirkara player and we want him to remain with us. His contract with us only expires in two years’ time. We have honoured our part of the contract. If he does not train with us, then we will consider that as a breach of contract. I want to make it clear that I think it was unfair on the part of Sliema who have been trying to lure the player over to their club since last January, when they knew that he had a contract binding him to us till 2008. For Barbara to leave Birkirkara before the expiry date of his contract, it has to be the right offer,” said Zammit.

The four foreigners also expressed their opinion saying they were happy to have joined what they all described as a very organised and enthusiastic club. They are all looking forward to a successful season with the Stripes with Paradiso saying that he had never encountered such a warm reception in any of the several clubs he had played for in the past. In the case of goalie Bledzewski, he will probably be the first Polish player to play in Maltese league football.