THE 2015 AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Asian Cup drew massive TV viewership that is unprecedented in the continental tournament’s 59-year history.
According to media research data, South Korea’s semifinal against Iraq reached 18.2 million South Korean TV viewers, or 37 percent of the country’s population. Australia’s semifinal victory against the United Arab Emirates broke the 1 million viewers mark to become one of the former’s most watched football matches in history. And by the end of the semifinals, Asian Cup matches were viewed in full by 182 million Chinese nationals, reaching a TV viewership of up to 950 million in China alone.
The frenzy extended into the digital realm. On Twitter, the Asian Cup’s official hashtag #AC2015 reportedly reached 2.69 billion, while YouTube views of the matches reached 3.3 million, clocking in up to 5 million minutes.
Asian Football is on the rise. With a fast-growing middle class, fervor for the game and its local players could one day rival that of Europe and South America. There may finally be an Asian World Cup winner in the not-so-distant future. And the Philippines, crazy over basketball and boxing, could merely fall on the wayside.
This is unfortunate given football’s long history in the archipelago. A 1926 National Almanac and Guide to the Philippines said that football was introduced to the country by Englishmen as early as 1895. And the origins of today’s Philippine Football Federation (PFF) date back to 1907, nearly three decades before the first basketball association was even formed in the Philippines.
Many Filipinos may not even know that the first Asian to have ever played for a European Football Club was the Iloilo-born Paulino Alcántara. Entering the club at 15 years old, Alcántara remains the youngest booter to have ever played for FC Barcelona, holding the club’s absolute record of scoring the most goals (369) in both official and friendly matches.
Football is still played in some parts of the country, but on the whole, the Philippines has yet to be captured by love for “the beautiful game,” as legendary Brazilian footballer Pelé called it in his autobiography.
Last week in Madrid, Spain, as chairman of the PinoySports Foundation, I signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Real Madrid Foundation (RMF)—the training and outreach arm of the top football club. Joining me at the signing ceremony were Kevin L. Tan, executive director of Alliance Global Inc. and trustee of the PinoySports Foundation; Philippine Ambassador to Spain Carlos Salinas; and PFF President Mariano Araneta.
Under the MOA, coaches from RMF will conduct “rolling” football clinics, ultimately covering all 16 regions of the country. The inaugural series this year will consist of three visiting coaches mentoring 18 coaches and 180 students from Metro Manila (National Capital Region) and six coaches and 60 students from Baler, Aurora (Region 3). Andrew Tan of Alliance Global Inc. is the principal sponsor and will host the clinics at McKinley Hill Stadium at Fort Bonifacio.
This is a groundbreaking, one-of-a-kind initiative—born out of the talks I initiated with the top football club and its foundation. RMF may have already conducted football clinics with Chinese and Japanese football clubs in the past. In contrast, the training partnership we signed for aims to be a national program, with many of the participants coming from public schools.
In gaining world-class football training, more Filipino youth will experience why football is the world’s most popular sport. It is a way of introducing the rest of the world to the Philippines. More important, it’s about seeing what the Philippines can offer, given its history, to this most beautiful of games.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.