By Edri K. Aznar
THE months of February and March will be relatively busy for Filipino football.
Aside from the upcoming match between the Azkals and Mongolia in the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City this month, the Philippine Football Federation will be having the team selections for the 13-, 14- and 16-Under national teams late this month and early March.
Cebu Football Association president Richard Montayre, who was appointed as head of the grassroots program and youth development committee, said the elimination tournaments for the age groups will be held late this month and early next month.
“The Visayas tournament will be held at the end of February in San Carlos City while for Luzon and Mindanao, it will be in the first week of March,” Montayre told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Unlike last year, when the elimination tournaments were held just in the Visayas and Mindanao, a Luzon regional tournament has been added this year.
The teams joining the selection tournament will be the elite squads of the different areas of the Philippines.
Montayre said the coaches of each age group will be attending the tournament to select the best players to represent the country’s youth teams.
Premier league
For this year, the PFF will also be working on the premier league, which will be backed by a 10-year, P80-million financial package from Smart.
The Premier League will hold local eliminations for each FA, with the champions moving to the regional , then national level.
“P3.5 million (of the P8 million per year) will be spent for the Premier League. Four million will be spent for the local tournaments (qualifying tournaments). However, we will still be finalizing that,” said Montayre.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on February 01, 2011.
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Its amazing how much money and some serious leadership can do for football. I dont remember any of this (national teams for those age groups) happening before. Use to be, you want to play in international tournaments, pay up. Thats why only guys from the exclusive schools were able to afford it. No offense meant there, hehehe. Exclusive schools have produced a lot of great players..but those were the limitations before as PFF had no money to sponsor these teams.
ReplyDeleteYes your right Jay to some extent but sometimes coaches from some not so exclusive schools whose players were invited dont send their players bec. they think that their program is better than the national program. Tsk-tsk. What a pity.
ReplyDeleteWith the current positive changes, I think the not-so-exclusive schools, especially in the Visayas, will now participate in the national program.
ReplyDeletethe pff will work on the 'premier league'? why call it a 'premier league' when the format is not even a league? its a cup competition.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the anonymous before me.
ReplyDeleteIf the PFF and Smart want to professionalise football, they have to create a league. Cup competitions won't work. Ang cup competition parang "national barangay league" sa basketball - pang short term lang at walang patutunguhan.
To promote the sport, go ahead with the "barangay league", but don't neglect the actual professional league.
Also, they have to clearly differentiate between school leagues and club leagues. As long as they're tied to a school, teams will never turn professional and will not be as effective in discovering good players.
ReplyDeletesome big pro teams in south america are actually tied to some schools. for example: UNAM Pumas (Universidad Autonoma de Mexico), Universidad de Chile and ex-copa libertadores champs LDU QUITO (liga de universitaria de quito from ecuador). they're players are not students but they used to be.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that...
ReplyDeleteWell, what I meant was that Philippine universities are quite conservative. Ateneo and DLSU have teams in the UFL (Loyola Agila FC and Green Archers U) and I doubt if they'll ever become pro teams.
thank you
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