The Lija/Iklin Football Youth Nursery was founded in season 2002/03 with a merger agreement between the Iklin Local Council, that was running a sub-committee known as ‘Skema Futbol Żgħażagħ Iklin’ and Lija Athletic F.C . Since then the Iklin Council has given its full support within the parameters of the Local Councils Act, but, the main protagonists emerging from this agreement were a fully-fledged nursery under the name of Lija/Iklin and its parent club Lija Athletic F. C.

The Nursery has progressed year after year, not just in increased membership that today stands around 200 but also in terms of football quality, participation in the YFA leagues, winning of honours and most of all in providing the club regularly with a number of youths who have made their time at the nursery and are well geared to join the club’s youth team. We feel that this is our main responsibility and we are doing our utmost in building up a setup that enables us to provide the club with young players of the highest level possible, that may make the grade not only in the minors but also eventually in the main squad.

The Nursery is in line with the club that is providing the most modern infrastructure and facilities required to run a football nursery by providing coaches with the highest possible qualifications and experience. There is a strong competition between nurseries to obtain not only the best coaches around but also the players that are available. Nurseries are very numerous and within a stone’s throw of each other and the number of available players may not increase for various reasons but especially the reduced birth rate and competition from other disciplines. Therefore we are trying to introduce other disciplines ourselves because we believe in sports culture rather than simply that related to just football and also to provide members with more than one option.

The Nursery takes this opportunity to congratulate the club on the winning of the Second Division Championship and promotion to First Division and hopes that the club would eventually venture on the idea of building up a team based on its young players and who may serve it for many years to come.