Msida St Joseph FC twinned with FC Nourese Calcio of Sardegna

During a recent visit to Sardegna, Msida St Joseph President Antoine Portelli met up with former President, Notaio Roberto Goveani, who is now President of FC Nourese Calcio in Sardegna. Mr Portelli was visiting Notaio Goveani after the latter had visited Malta over the past weeks. During his visit in Malta, Notaio Goveani had expressed his wish that the two clubs – both of which are close to his heart – are twinned in order to further enhance the collaboration between the two clubs.

Msida S.J. President Antoine Portelli accepted this offer, and on an invitation of Notaio Goveani visited the island of Sardegna some weeks ago to officially kick off the twinning between the two clubs.

During his visit Mr Portelli re-discovered an old acquaintance: Msida S.J. former coach Mario Petrone, who now is coach of the Sardinian club. Another member of the coaching staff at Nuorese Calcio is Max Ciapitta, who was also the physical instructor at Msida during Notaio Goveani’s term as President. Former Member on the Msida St. Joseph FC Executive committee, Edoardo Fiammotto; and who is Administrator at Nourese Calcio was also present for the event.

Mr Portelli visited also the training grounds and attended a training session of the team. The event was also given prominence on the island’s print meda,(an abstract of which can be found here.)

Hereunder are some photos of the event.

Nourese Calcio Official Website: http://www.nuoresecalcio.com/

www.msidastjoseph.com spoke to President Antoine Portelli about this twinning agreement. You can find the interview underneath the photos of this memorable occasion.

Old friends meet again; Antoine Portelli and Mario Petrone

Presidents Portelli and Goveani

Now Goveani seems a bit puzzled – The second Msida Shirt is practically the same as Nuorese’s shirt used last season

Petrone holding his old team’s shirt together with Portelli and Goveani

All smiles, probably Petrone was telling one of his jokes

Journalists interviewing Antoine Portelli, Edoardo Fiammotto also shown in this photo

Interview with Msida St. Joseph FC President Mr. Antoine Portelli

Interview took place just before the match against St. George’s

What motivated your return to the administration of the club?

Well, to be honest, part of me never actually resigned… and that is my heart. Let me just say that the main reason for my return was that I felt that together with the other Executive Committee members, we can achieve our targets even though these are very difficult. This in conjuction to the fact that Robert Ancilleri was ready to take on the role of Finance Director.

What are the targets you are referring to? Are they the same as they were when Msida SJ started the season, that of placing in the top six?

The two most important targets are a healthy balance sheet and a place in the Championship pool. A healthy balance sheet is the biggest task because we all know what it entails to run a football club at Premier Division Level and finding sponsors is definitely not an easy task. In addition as one of our loyal supporters stated on the website’s guestbook “we don’t have a rich President” therefore we have to work much, much harder. Our aim is to build the infrastructure of the club, starting from premises and training grounds. I am pleased to say that at present we are in talks with Government and we have been promised a location for training grounds and facilities. In fact only recently, I have been in talks with the Lawyer representing the Government and a draft agreement will be received imminently. In this manner apart from having training grounds for the first team, we can also accommodate our youth sector because these children are the future of the Club. The example of Tyrone Farrugia is a constant reminder of how the nursery is our lifeline.

You seem to give importance more to Finances and Nursery.

Not exactly. It is imperative that we reach the championship pool, because I feel that this is the least that this group of players can do. We have to admit that this is the strongest team since we reached the Premier League in 2003/4. Having said that, I am still of the opinion that having no plans with regards to finances and infrastructure is a recipe for disaster. As I said before, it is a very difficult target to achieve, but unlike others I want to have a go at it.

It seems like only yesterday that the Club was promoted to Premier, yet we are here at the fourth consecutive season with Malta’s elite – your comments

All those who worked since season 2003/4 have managed to build a stronger team every year and even the achievements grew. 2003/4 was the most difficult and we knew that, in fact we had to wait till the very last match against Balzan to secure our place. The second year 2004/5, we still placed in the relegation pool but managed to reach safe waters mid way through the play outs. During that same season we reached the memorable FA Trophy Final, which although the score sheet was against us, we ended up winners in other ways, and personally, it still is the most memorable day of my life at Msida St Joseph. The season 2004/5 was extremely important for the club because in my opinion we took a big step ahead with regards to being more professional. This thanks to Notaio Goveani and coach Mario Petrone whose experience served us to learn much more about football administration and management. Last year the Club achieved the sixth place, again another milestone, but everyone agrees that we have to treasure what we learnt especially during 2004/5.

Talking about Notaio Roberto Goveani how do you describe your relationship with Not. Roberto Goveani?

My relationship with Roberto is that of a good friend. Following his resignation in June 2005 we remained in contact. I closely followed his team Nuorese which last year won the promotion to serie C2, which was managed by Petrone. In fact, he invited me for the last match and celebrations and unfortunately due to other commitments I couldn’t attend. Sometime during the beginning of June he called me and told me that he would be coming to Malta for the week-end which he did. He returned during August this time for a longer period. His second visit coincided with my election as President of the Club and it was during that period that he came up with the idea of a Twinning agreement.

What does this mean for Msida St. Joseph FC? Is it good news for the future?

Let us not start imagining things, we all know that in life some opportunities come our way only once. When you have an opportunity you have to be wise to grasp it and make the best of it. Even though there is only one thing certain in life , however, I’m afraid that we missed the boat. To answer your question: this means that Msida still has Notaio Goveani as a friend, this also includes others like Edoardo Fiammotto, Mario Petrone and Max Capitta. Nothing more, nothing less.

Following the very positive start of the 06/07 campaign, what do you think the future holds for Msida St. Joseph FC under your reign?

As I stated earlier on, our target is the Championship Pool and I believe that this is achievable, even though in my opinion the team has to obtain at least 26points to reach the championship Pool as opposed to last year’s 21 points. When you think about it, it’s not easy at all.

Is there something you would wish to say to the Supporters?

I am renowned for being blunt and to the point so I will not mince my words. We need to stay with our feet glued firmly to the ground. We all have to work hard. It’s simple: NO PAIN NO GAIN!