“Football can be run as a successful business model, if you have a plan,” adds fellow trustee Santiago Araneta of the sponsoring LBC Express, Inc. “What is important is we do things one step at a time, and eventually, we’ll get there.
What FA has done is to partner with the United Football Club Association (UFCA) to put together a long-term business plan for the sport. The existing teams of the United Football League will each get corporate sponsors, either their own or enlisted by FA, to ensure the viability of each squad.
“As of now, we still have no way of determining which teams should be ranked where,” adds Philip Hagedorn of FA. “So we will have an initial competition to be able to rate everybody, and take it from there.”
The initial tournament will have 16 teams from the Armed Forces, schools and clubs, as well as teams of expats in the Philippines.
Players will receive the same allowances, and uniforms designed by Rudy Project, which will hopefully give their merchandising efforts some impetus. The United Football Cup will run from October to December, and will essentially determine the rankings, and which teams play in Division I and which teams play in Division II.
Relegation and promotion will be incorporated into the format to make things interesting.
The main tournament, the United Football League, will stretch from January to May. And the United Football Invitational, which will include a handful of teams from neighboring countries, will also be held in May. The FA believes it doesn’t make sense to be playing during rainy season.
“We actually have everything in place,” Mantecon continues. “We have the teams who are excited to play, the sponsors who have been very helpful, and even the print media, who are truly interested. We’ve even negotiated with SM to put up a pitch for us near Mall of Asia.
All we need now is to get people to watch the games.”
The FA has taken every step to professionalize the sport. What they need now is a snowball of public awareness to make sure the sport grows properly.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=507229&publicationSubCategoryId=69
Comment : Is this a new Manila league , and who is behind FA (Football Alliance) ? Is this league supported by PFF or NCR ?
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This is a wonderful plan in boosting the football awareness in our counry. Their are talented players in our country, not just in metro manila, but also in the visayas and mindanao.I remembered that the champion of the national coke go for goal, 2nd to the last season, came from iligan city, a football haven of mindanao. I am one of the those who witnessed the talents of these boys from our city, but because their is no professional league in our country, the boys' talents were wasted. In fact, I had known of one becoming a drug addict; and also has a friend who scored a goal against indonesia, he was so good that he is our main scorer in our club but is now working as a nurse in london. As an avid parishioner of the sport, we made a club, named Ba-o Breakers, which is compose of young and come-back players in our city. I am posting this comment so that our dedication to the sport would rekindle the long lost motivation of our countrymen to the sport of Football. And a last we can chant.... VIVA PILIPINAS!!! VIVA!!!!!
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