“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Birkirkara can pretend not to have heard.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Birkirkara until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Zach Muscat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutFranklin Sasere loses the manager who believed in him
The mood at Birkirkara has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Rafa Santos delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rafa Santos scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Birkirkara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Comfort Ngubo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jan Busuttil falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rashed Al-Tumi, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Hamrun Spartans had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Christian Ellul was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Birkirkara dressing room was either.
In brief
Looking aheadBirkirkara take on the side everybody is chasing
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Birkirkara have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jere Vrcić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Zach Muscat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 9.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom96% of the income goes out in wages at Birkirkara
Player ratingsThe cruellest goal, and it is Donovan Makoma's
22Edition
The Birkirkara Courier
28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces28 Dec 2026
The mood at Birkirkara has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
7.70, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Zach Muscat and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Dec 2026
8 new faces, and Birkirkara are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Christian Ellul to a room that had heard them before.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Bukho Mkalipi.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Yankho Singo
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Birkirkara and Valletta, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anthony Núñez has, at Birkirkara, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Franklin Sasere was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A 2‑1 win over Sliema Wanderers, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birkirkara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Birkirkara and Mosta in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
Comfort Ngubo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yankho Singo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Jere Vrcić takes the afternoon — 9.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jere Vrcić provided it, and the 9.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zach Muscat and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jere Vrcić. 3‑2 against Marsaxlokk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.85 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birkirkara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7 goals in one match, Franklin Sasere on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Birkirkara and Zabbar St. Patrick.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Busuttil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luciano Van Heerden has just signed for Birkirkara, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Jere Vrcić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Birkirkara were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Birkirkara can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tokollo Makgolane has, at Birkirkara, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Zach Muscat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Birkirkara can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kemar Reid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Christian Ellul after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A season average of 7.26 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Jere Vrcić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It needed Franklin Sasere to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Naxxar Lions, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 3‑3 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matthew Grech
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sliema Wanderers were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A 2‑1 win over Sliema Wanderers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kemar Reid is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Birkirkara can pretend not to have heard.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Zach Muscat and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Valletta had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
111% of the income goes out in wages at Birkirkara
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Christian Ellul after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Franklin Sasere on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Birkirkara and Tarxien Rainbows.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Franklin Sasere was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.55. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Jere Vrcić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.41
A mark of 8.41 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Birkirkara and Marsaxlokk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Birkirkara.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Jere Vrcić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yankho Singo has, at Birkirkara, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Birkirkara close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Floriana have kept their man, and Birkirkara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Christian Ellul after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Birkirkara will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jere Vrcić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Birkirkara escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jere Vrcić did not need any: 9.46, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jere Vrcić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Franklin Sasere was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Sliema Wanderers wanted more than $46.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Mozyr have kept their man, and Birkirkara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Macula’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Birkirkara needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andre Azzopardi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Zach Muscat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Birkirkara have gone to Sliema Wanderers with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$45.0K was the most the club would pay and Mosta were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Mosta this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Birkirkara have gone to Valletta with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Charlton Bajada has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andre Azzopardi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bjorn Grima has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Noel Busuttil has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Zach Muscat and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Still no offer on the table, and Zach Muscat’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Birkirkara, another week without a signature from Rashed Al-Tumi.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Birkirkara are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.