Philippine football may be in its incipient stage. But in recent years, the beautiful game started gaining popularity among Filipino sports fans—not least because of the Philippine Azkals’ performance, buoyed by unwavering support from corporate sponsors and civil-society groups.
In March the Azkals scored a giant upset, beating North Korea at a World Cup qualifier match here in Manila. The victory earned in April the Philippine national football team’s highest-ever Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) rankings—116th out of 209. A month later, they inched a step higher (115th) to land at the top of the Asean Football Federation, next only to Australia.
The National Capital Region-based United Football League—which started in 2010—has also given way for local football clubs to compete regionally. In April Ceres-La Salle FC, based in Bacolod City, and Kaya FC, from Makati City, scored decisive victories that put them at the top of their respective groups in this year’s Asian Football Confederation Cup.
Such positive developments were like tailwinds to my recent trip to Mexico City, where I attended the 66th Fifa Congress as honorary chairman of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) with PFF Vice President Joselito Piñol and PFF General Secretary Atty. Edwin Gastanes.
As a recent ESPN article put it, “there is a happy glow around Filipino football at the moment.” Such a glowing moment may just be short-lived however, especially when Filipino fans still prefer basketball and boxing as their top sports.
That need not be the case. Consider, for instance, that while the Filipino’s average height is already a disadvantage in basketball, our small physique and agility could easily make us football champions.
What we lack is a football-playing tradition. And a first step at filling this gap would be to ramp up grassroots football-development programs, like Pagcor’s Kasibulan initiative that started in 2012 and has since attracted more than 100,000 kids to the sport nationwide.
We should also turn to our friends abroad, pursuing what fellow Philippine football supporter Dr. Bernie Villegas called “football diplomacy” with our European and Latin American partners.
In 2008 I hosted football coaches from Andalusia, Sevilla-based Centro de Estudios, Desarollo e Investigación del Fútbol Andaluz to conduct short training courses in Baler, Aurora, and in Bago, Negros Occidental. In 2012 I brought in UEFA-licensed Coach Maor Rozen, who ably taught 300 student-booters from Aurora province. And just last October we held the inaugural kick-off of Real Madrid grassroots clinics for Department of Education coaches and students at the McKinley Hill Stadium of Megaworld in Taguig City—following a memorandum of agreement signed between the premier club and the Pinoy Sports Foundation, which I chair.
Such training initiatives will be for naught if Philippine football still lacks the necessary stadiums, football pitches and training facilities for teams to play and practice. New stadiums may have been built in recent years but, more often than not, these are multipurpose halls, and not up to Fifa specifications.
The infrastructure gap also keeps us from participating more meaningfully in regional tournaments. In March we lost out on hosting the group stage of the 2016 Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup, when negotiations failed on the use of the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bulacan while no other venue was deemed acceptable for the biennial meet.
Philippine football may be rising, yet we are still way behind our neighbors. But so was Leicester City, which was nearly relegated or demoted in the 2014-2015 English Premier League for dismal performance—only to emerge the league’s champion just a year later.
The odds were stacked so highly against the Foxes that bookies offered at the start of the season a 1/5,000 payout to anybody betting on their victory. What followed was the largest payout ever in British sports betting (around $36 million), and what many consider the biggest upset in sports history.
In short, no football club—or football-playing country for that matter—should be counted out. That is why nothing less than single-minded dedication and long-term investments should be devoted to developing Philippine football.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.