BACOLOD City—The AIA Vitality Kampeon Cup kicks off Friday at the La Provincia Polo Field here to usher in perhaps the biggest football grassroots program in the country.
The best seven-a-side selection squads from six cities are entered in the event that ends Sunday. They were drawn into two groups.
Defending champion Cebu leads Group B that includes Bonifacio Global City and Iloilo. Bacolod, Pampanga and San Carlos are in Group A.
“The AIA Vitality Kampeon Cup is a tournament that seeks to bring the best football players all over the country in a festival-type atmosphere where there are games for kids, a tournament for the youth, women’s, and men’s with the Kampeon Cup in between,” said Kampeon Cup founder and former national player Anton del Rosario.
Del Rosario will be suiting up for the BGC team, while his former Azkals teammate and captain Stephan Schrock will be a guest player for Bacolod. Schrock will miss this weekend’s match for the Azkals Development Team because of accumulation of yellow cards.
“We are happy the league has continued to make strides in the local football scene by expanding its scope from Pampanga, Manila and Palawan all the way to Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod, giving even more Filipinos a chance to showcase their skills on a nationwide scale,” said Kats Cajucom, AIA Philippines’s Head of Health and Wellness. “We are excited for Kampeon’s kick off in Bacolod, and look forward to helping Filipinos—young and old alike—live healthier, longer, better lives through our continued support of football.”
The goal for del Rosario and his co-organizers is for the Kampeon Cup to get bigger and bigger as the years go on.
“The goal for the Kampeon Cup is to be an international tournament where teams from Singapore, Thailand, India, and others come over to participate,” del Rosario said. “Now that will not only help the sport on a national level, but also foster better relations with our neighbors.”
Ethan Lee, managing director of sports registration application Palaro, hopes that the application will soon be used by athletes from all over the country as a means for online registration for various sports tournaments while serving as a database.
“This way, teams, managers, coaches and players will be able to have a profile about their respective careers and their sports information,” Lee said.
Seven-a-side football has gained huge traction over the last several years and is seen as the sport’s version of 3x3bBasketball. It picks up nuances from traditional 11-a-side football as well as futsal.