Schembri captained Malta for the first time on 25 March 2015, in a friendly against Georgia; he ultimately served as captain 16 times. After a 2–0 defeat in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier against England, played on 8 October 2016, Schembri criticised the Malta Football Association (MFA), the governing body of football in Malta, for the lack of progress done in Maltese football and the lack of initiative in the youth football setups. His stance was supported by many, with the association's president acknowledging the disappointing results in the last 20 years, although he asserted that the MFA had been working in sending Maltese youth to trials abroad. For the following match against Lithuania on 11 October, Schembri was removed as captain and replaced by Michael Mifsud, with the insistence that the decision was a tactical one. In October 2018, he reiterated his stance on the stagnation of Maltese football and the lack of concrete ideas by the governing body to improve it, although he praised the MFA's initiative in assisting youth footballers to foreign leagues.
