BALZAN YOUTHS FOOTBALL CLUB

        FOUNDED 1937

         A BRIEF HISTORY OF BALZAN YOUTHS FOOTBALL CLUB

 Football was introduced in Malta by the British through the strong influence of the British Forces at the beginning of the 19th Century. In 1900 the Malta Football Association was founded and the first Championship League was organised later, for the 1909-1910 football season.

 It was in 1937 when, in the small village of Balzan a group of football enthusiasts got together and founded the Balzan Youths Football Club. Sadly, despite being one of the oldest football clubs in Malta, very little information  on its beginnings has survived since the club’s records were either lost or destroyed. It has only been for the past 30 years that its history has been preserved.

 Balzan Youths FC may not boast of great successes, yet through the years several good players have emerged from this club all of whom have played with Top Division clubs. Notable names include: Giulino Muscat, France Suda, Paul Chetcuti, Nenu Nappa, the brothers Paul and Lonzu Pullicino, Alfred Cardona, the brothers Peter and Tony Fitzgerald, Mario Monreal, among others. Since it’s foundation, Balzan Youths FC has always proved to be a competitive team. However for a small village club, with rather limited resources, it is not easy to establish itself with the top clubs. As a result, it has remained in the lower ranks. In the seasons spanning 1946-1947, 1955-1956 and 1957-1958 the team came very close to being promoted to the top Division. During these seasons they succeeded to win the section they were playing in the Second Division but failed to go on to win the decider, as at that time only one team was promoted to the First Division. Balzan Youths FC several times came close but did not quite achieve this goal.

         1951 - 1952               1955 - 1956                    1957 - 1958                1982 - 1983

 The club waited until 53 years after its foundation before it tasted the joy of success. In Season 1990-1991, the club’s first team were promoted to the Second Division. It has to be noted that this happened due to a decision taken by the MFA to relegate Naxxar Lions FC from the Premier Division to the Third Division. This opened a vacant post in the Premier Division and consequently also in the First and Second Division. As runners up of the Third Division Section “B”, Balzan Youths FC had to play a deciding game against Melita FC, the runners up of Section “A”. Balzan Youths FC emerged winners from this game and was consequently promoted. This was the first time ever in the club’s history that called for celebrations.

 

                                                              Season 1990 -1991

During this Season the Committee began to realise that it could not continue to concentrate solely on its first team but required promising young players to be trained for future teams. With this in mind they proposed starting their own Football Nursery. At that time although the Nursery was not yet formalised the committee decided nevertheless to participate in the Under 16 League of the Youth Football Association by registering a group of young players from 14 to 16 years of age.

 In Season 1991-1992 the committee continued to work on its plans to organise a Football Nursery with the intention of training players at a young age who would go on to play for the club in future senior leagues. While in the Second Division Balzan Youths FC always played at a competitive standard and finished in a respectable place in the final classification.

 In Season 1995-1996, five years after being promoted to the Second Division, the Balzan Youths FC team was relegated to the Third Division. This was a turning point for the committee of that time. They took the opportunity to start utilising the talent from their football nursery and began introducing young players in the field of play together with established players.

 In Season 1999-2000, after four seasons in the Third Division and 62 years on from its foundation, the dream of many came true. Balzan Youths FC won the Third Division League, this time as Champions. This win coincided with the beginning of the new Millennium and in the first season that the Third Division League was played in the newly inaugurated Centenary Stadium. This called for big celebrations and the entire village of Balzan participated. Everybody’s contribution to the Club’s success has to be recognised, above all the players themselves, as well as the organisation and dedication of all the committee members and not least the supporters.

                                                           Season 1999 - 2000       

 In Season 2000-2001, after only one year in the Second Division, Balzan Youths FC added to their pride the first ever promotion to the First Division, after finishing as runners up in the final classification of the Second Division. This season was truly an exceptional one. Apart from their promotion to the First Division, Balzan Youths FC won all the other competitions their teams participated in.

                                                                Season 2000 - 2001

The Reserves team finished as Champions of the Second Division; the Minors team finished as Champions of Minors Section “C” and consequently got promoted to Minors Section “B”.

The Balzan Youths Nursery also had its successes with both their teams winning the championships for the U/14 and U/16 Leagues of the Youth Football Association. This was once again cause for celebration carried out with greater pomposity, where both village bands took part and all the villagers together with other guests joined in.

 Season 2001-2002 was the club’s first experience competing in the First Division. Everybody worked hard and the players had to play against much more seasoned players but they carried themselves well and placed fourth in the final classification.

The other teams of the club did equally well. The Reserves team and the Minors team both finished as Champions. Despite the disappointment that Reserves League has been dropped by the Malta Football Association for next season, the Minors were to participate in the Section “A” Minors League competing with teams from the more elite clubs.

 In Season 2002-2003 Balzan Youths FC reached the climax, as for the first time ever they were promoted to play in the Top League. After two years in the First Division our team finished as runners up three points behind the Champions Msida S J FC.

                                                          Season 2002 - 2003

The Minors team playing for the first time in Section “A”, against the top clubs, passed from different circumstances. This season was a disappointing one. Here we encountered a difficulty because most of last season players were no longer eligible to play and we had to make use of the U/16 players. Nevertheless the team managed to finish in the 8th place and evaded relegation.

 Season 2003-2004 playing in the Premier League, against the elite clubs, was a remarkable experience. We won 5 games (against Hamrun S FC, Valletta FC, Hibernians FC, Pieta H FC and Msida SJ FC), drew 3 games (against Msida SJ FC, Floriana FC and Hamrun S FC) and lost the rest. We finished the first phase in 7th place and had to play in the relegation pool together with Valletta FC, Hamrun S FC and Msida SJ. FC. We had to wait until our last game against Msida SJ FC to know our destiny. We lost this decisive game and consequently were relegated, together with Hamrun S FC, to play in the First Division. In the preliminary round of the Trophy we managed to pass to the next phase by beating First Division team Rabat A FC but then had to bow our head by losing to Floriana FC

                                                             Season 2003- 2004

The Minors team played in Section “A” and managed to finish in 5th place.

Season 2004/2005, playing in the First Division, was a disastrous one. The team could not gear up and we lost one game after another. In the second round the committee had to do something to try and save the day and a decision was taken to replace the coach but it was too late. Our destiny was to play in the Second Division and it so happened.

 In the preliminary round of FA Trophy we were drawn to play against Valletta FC. We were no match to them and so we lost this game.

 As for the Minors team, playing in Section “A”, again we encountered another setback because of the introduction of a new MFA rule, where only players u/18 were eligible to play in Section “A”. Nevertheless we managed to finish the season in the 8th place and evaded relegation once again.

 Season 2005-2006 playing in the Second Division was yet another season to forget. In the first round we played well but in the second round something happened. We lost six games in a row and found ourselves in the danger zone. We were relieved as we won the last three games and in the end we finished in 5th place.

 Season 2006-2007 was a quite one. After a good start we finished the first round in 3rd place. In the second round we did not manage to keep the pace and at the end of the season we finished in the 5th place.

 We started Season 2007-2008 on a negative tone where we drew the first game and lost the next two games. From there on we laid our hands on and managed to finish the season in the first place, jointly with San Gwann FC and Rabat A FC. According to the MFA Rules "When three teams finish with equal points the direct encounters are to be taken into consideration. The team with the maximum points will then be declared as Champion and the other two teams have to play a decider in order to declare the second team to be promoted". Consequently San Gwann FC’s team was declared as Champions and we had to play a deciding game against Rabat A FC. To our disappointment, we failed to win this decider and so missed our chance to be promoted to the First Division.

 Season 2008/09 started immediately after we lost last year's decider with Rabat A FC. It was not easy to restart a new season after this huge setback and disappointment.  A number of new players were brought in including player coach Ivan Zammit who was given the task to lead this new group of players to reach the club's ultimate objective that is promotion to the First Division.

The kick-off for this season started with three games from the II & III Division Knock-out Competition and it was evident that our team had the potential of being one of the challengers for promotion. In the Second Division League from 22 matches played we won 18 and drew 3, twice against Melita and the other against St Andrews and lost just one game which happened to be against Lija Athletics. We maintained the first position for nearly all the campaign and our strong defence managed to retain a clean sheet for the first nine league matches and just conceding nine goals throughout the league. After the first round we were already runaway leaders enjoying a four point advantage on Melita and ten on Lija Athletics. We have seen a number of hard fought matches such as those against Melita were in all three matches Balzan Youths had a player sent off. It was a pity that our team got out off the II & III Division Knock-out Competition against this team as we had a good game against them.

 It was evident that Balzan Youths was the best team in the Second Division and deserved to finish as Champions. They finished the League campaign on a record of 57 points, leading Melita FC on 7 points and 9 on third placed Lija Athletics FC. All Balzan Youths FC fans should be proud with this year's achievement as our team made history winning the Second Division for the first time in our club's history. Celebrations to mark this occasion were held on Sunday 10th May 2009, immediately after the last match of the season against Mgarr United FC.

                                                            Season 2008 - 2009

The Minors team on the other hand didn't have a good season, despite giving a good performance, as they were relegated to play in Section 'B' next season. They played against tough opponents, having players playing in the Premier League.

Season 2009/2010, started with the First Division Knock-Out competition where our team failed to pass to the semi-finals, as they finished in 2^nd place of the preliminary round, winning 2 games, finishing draw in 1 game and lost the last game.

Playing again in the First Division, was a interesting one where we finished in the 3^rd place of the final classification. All the way though the season we were in a struggle for promotion against another two teams Marsaxlokk FC and Vittoriosa Stars FC, who ironically started the season in the Premier Division and were relegated to First Division before the League started. We did not make it, as we failed to win the last direct encounter against Vittoriosa Stars FC. In all, we won 9 games, finished draw in 4 games and lost 5 games. Our player Simon Shead finished as top scorer of the First Division.

We took part in the U*Bet FA Trophy where we managed to reach the quarter finals beating two Premier League teams - Msida Saint Joseph FC and Dingli Swallows FC. In the quarter-finals we lost against another Premier League team -Tarxien Rainbows FC.

We also took part in the National League 100th Anniversary Cup where we won a game in the 3^rd round against a Third Division team - Qrendi FC but then went to loose a game in the 4^th round against a Premier League team - Tarxien Rainbows FC.

The Minors team had a reasonably good season in the Minors League Section "B" where they finished in 5^th place. In the Minors "B" Knock-out Competition they managed to reach the semi-finals but lost the game.

In Season 2010-2011, the first team of Balzan Youths FC reached the climax for the second time in their history, as they got promoted once again to play in the Premier League. After two years in the First Division, the team finished, for the first time ever, as "Champions" of the First Division League, with twelve points in front of second placed Mqabba FC.

                   Season 2010-2011                         

In the "First Division Knock-Out Competition" Balzan Youths FC first team finished second place of Group "A" in the preliminary round and passed to play the Semi-final against first placed in Group "B"  Mqabba FC. After beating Mqabba FC in the semi-final, the team lost the Final against Dingli Swallows and consequently finished as Runners-up of this Competition.

In the "U*Bet FA Trophy" the team lost the preliminary game against Premier League team -Tarxien Rainbows FC.

The Minors team had a reasonably good season in the Minors League - Section "B" but failed to get promoted to Section "A", as they finished in 3^rd place four points behind second placed Qormi. In the Minors "B" Knock-out Competition they lost the only game they played against Rabat Ajax FC.