Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1076517
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 JANUARY 2019 20 FOOTBALL SPORTS WARREN ZAMMIT THE future of Birkirkara's ex-coach, Paul Zammit, is still uncertain as both sides are yet to reach an agreement in order to terminate Zammit's contract. Zammit was offered the chance to coach Birkirkara for the third time in September of 2017. He was seen as a candidate to replace Peter Pullicino who resigned early in the season as things were not going well for the club since they failed to win in the first two games. The experienced coach didn't have the best of starts as Birkirkara strug- gled to gain consistency. However, as time went by, the team seemed to settle down and produced a string of positive results. Such results enabled them to finish fourth and also reach the final of the FA Trophy. Eventually, they also retained a spot in the Europa League. During this season, Birkirkara de- cided to change the core of their team in their attempts to improve on the previous season. Despite this, they still struggled to gain consistency during the early stages of the campaign. In October, Birkirkara's president, Frank Zarb, made it public that he was not happy with the performance of the team and blamed Zammit for choos- ing the wrong foreigners. He also ac- knowledged that he asked the coach to resign, but Zammit refused since he wanted to keep on working as he still felt that he had the respect of his play- ers and supporters. In fact, Zammit kept coaching the team and they managed to secure five wins out of six matches prior to the Christmas break. The Stripes won against Sliema, Qormi, Senglea, Mo- sta and Nadur, but lost to Hibernians. However, it seemed that Zarb had already made up his mind and want- ed Zammit to leave at all costs. As a matter of fact, it can be revealed that as from December, Zammit was no longer consulted when it came to signing new players as well as when offloading players. Sources that spoke to MaltaToday said that one particular case was Clay- ton Failla whom the coach simply found present for training without any notice. This newspaper can also state that during the Christmas break, Zammit was contacted by Michael Valenzia who is the technical director in order to meet some high officials from the club. During this meeting, Zammit was told that John Arne Riise was en- gaged as sporting director and he will train the team and also pick the team for matches, despite the fact that the Norwegian doesn't have the required coaching licence to coach in the Pre- mier League. This didn't go well with Paul Zam- mit who made it clear that he would not accept this as his contract was breached. Further to this, Zammit felt that such actions undermine his pride as a coach. At that moment, Birkirka- ra's president excused Zammit from training so as not to interfere with Riise. Following this meeting, through his legal advisors, Zammit asked Birkirka- ra to negotiate an agreement in or- der for his contract to be terminated. They gave Birkirkara a deadline and the president asked for an extension of that deadline. Sources pointed out that although the deadline passed, Zammit received no offers from Birkirkara. Such sources also indicated that Zammit has not received any payments as from August and thus it is highly im- probable that Zammit will keep on be- ing paid by Birkirkara. In light of this, Zammit will probably have no other option but to take his case to the Malta Football Association. This newspaper also sent a number of questions to Birkirkara. Colin Ba- son, the assistant secretary replied by confirming that Paul Zammit is still contracted with Birkirkara, but didn't want to give more details due to ongo- ing negotiations. Paul Zammit still contracted to Birkirkara as negotiations remain at a standstill Paul Zammit (left) started his third spell at Birkirkara in September 2017