The Protest Board of the GFA has declared our U/21 team as champions of their section after upholding the protest presented by our club officials. The Board found that Nadur's Brazilian, Claudio Antunes was ineligible to play as he had a suspension which he incurred during Nadur's last match of the season of the senior team. One has to point out that our team had a player with a similar suspension and correctly our committee opted not to play him, a decision that vindicated this action.

Club President, Mr. Brian Azzopardi, Club Secretary Mr. Keith Vella Muskat and Club advocate and committee member, Dr. Samuel Azzopardi were the triumvirate that so ably defended this case. As stated before we would have preferred to win the league during the final match. Surely we had a team that could have done so but various circumstances affected heavily our final match and Nadur Youngsters' decision to play the ineligible Antunes left us with no option but to take this decision. Our Club's interests had to be safeguarded.

We are sure that Nadur Youngsters played Antunes in good faith but justice had to be done as the statute of the GFA states clearly who is eligible to play or not. We would like to congratulate our boys for being crowned again champions of this section and it goes to prove that the investment made in our academy is baring the right fruits as this is the fifth league won by our youths in the last six years.

Here we are quoting the two crucial statute clauses on which our three members of the committee presented their case:

17. Special Serving of Suspensions

(i) In case that a suspension of a match or a number of matches cannot be served in the same competition of the Association, during the same season, the suspension shall be served in the first competitive match of his Club for which the player is eligible to play during the same season.

(ii) If such suspension cannot be served in any competition during the same season, then the suspension shall be served in the first competitive match for whom the player will be eligible to play during the next season.