30 December 2012

PFF President Araneta - Plans for 2013


By Joaquin Henson

Nest year, Araneta said he’s looking forward to even more landmark accomplishments. Internationally, his goals are to qualify for the Challenge Cup finals and barge into the Southeast Asian Games semifinals where the age limit is 23. “We’re hosting one bracket in the Challenge Cup and we’ll play Brunei, Cambodia and Turkmenistan in March,” said Araneta. “If we top the bracket or rank one of two of the top second placers, we’ll qualify for the eight-team finals in Maldives next year. We’ll hold an Independence Day match in June since FIFA has set aside June 6-12 for friendlies. If we’re invited to play in the Nehru Cup in India sometime in August, we plan to accept. We’ll do another Peace Cup with stronger teams in September. In October, we could do a Middle East camp to prepare for the Challenge Cup finals if we make it like we did in Bahrain and Kuwait before.”
Araneta said more Fil-foreigners are applying to join the Azkals and the PFF welcomes their addition. “We’re building depth because we’re never sure who can play given international commitments,” he said. “One player we’re hoping to enlist is Fil-Spanish Javier Patino, a striker from FC Cordova. If he can get his Philippine passport before the Jan. 31 deadline, we could line him up for the Challenge Cup qualifiers in March.”
On the national level, Araneta said a goal is to stage more under-19 competitions. “We’re also planning to establish football elite centers in five areas which our technical committee is now identifying based on player potentials in our talent ID program,” he said. “We’re excited about the growth of the UFL where a lot of the Azkals now play. We realize basketball is our No. 1 sport but if football comes in a close second, we’ll be very happy. Winning a major tournament will kick off more interest in football. 2012 was a good year for Philippine football and if we keep working as a team, we expect 2013 to be even better.”

philstar

15 comments:

  1. Good programming prez. We'll expect quality filfors, meaning division 1 players not antique players from western europe


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  2. these football elite centers have been only empty talk during the last 6 years. i hope nonong can finally get this moving quickly in 2013. then and only then will i believe he is serious in his role as pff prexy

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    1. Actually this has been proposed as far as back as the late 70's and early 80's when German consultant Zgoll made his recommendations. Hopefully with more funding we might be able to see them implemented today, although as you mentioned I will still be holding my breath until it is fully implemented.

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    2. Zgoll's recommendations were implemented to a certain extent. But he left sooner than expected and the program slowly died.

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    3. That is true, but his idea of having regional training football center for elite athletes never came to fruition. It was always expected that his local assistants were to take over and continue the program when he left, but the chaos resulting during the immediate post Marcos era and the lack of public interest for the sport hindered its implementation.

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  3. kalokohan nanaman yan,araneta mukha ka na ring foreigner d ba kau magdedevelop ng home grown gagastos nanaman kau sayang lang tsk tsk tsk kaya d umasenso ang pinoy kc puro foreigner ang inaasahan natin,dpat hindi na flag ng pinas ang gmitin kc nadudumihan lang sa mga bullshit na politikong ngmamaneobra at mga sandamakmak na filfor na mga bulok nman shit......

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  4. ano ba kala mo sa mga players mushroom? basta na lang umuusbong hahaha

    Kahit mag develop sila ngayon, di na makakahabol ang mga yaan sa mga ka contemporary nila ( U-19, U-23). Kasi, huli na

    Maghintay na lang kayo ng 10 years para umusbong ang next generation.

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    1. anonymous-ganon talaga ang reality dito sa atin at hindi lang sa football kung hindi sa lahat ng sports. kumukuha tayo ng mga magagaling na na-train na sa labas na athletes like sa basketball, swimming, track and field, etc. wala namang masama nito kasi mahirap tayo na bayan at kulang tayo ng tamang training equipment/faciilities at coaches. this is the only way that football will be in the consciousness of people and become like basketball eventually. kung puro local/homegrown players natin at hindi naman kasing galing, palagi na lang tayong kulelat sa tournaments at walang manunuod sa football. ilang taon na tayong mahilig sa basketball pero sige pa rin tayong kumukuha sa fil-for so hindi talaga ito ma-eliminate. we should just accept our fil-for players like other sports fans accept their fil-foreigners. If you are trying to be supernationalistic, you should equally abhor and hate the likes of nonito donaire, brian viloria, greg slaughter, derek ramsey, ann curtis, jessica sanchez, at napakarami pang iba. anonymous-kaplastikan yan ang sinasabi mo.

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  5. What about 2013 plans for the Womens National Team? Looks like they are on track to remain 2nd class citizens despite their recent success. The team had managed to tap into a deep well of talented college players from the US/Canada and now have a legitimate chance of finally winning more tournaments. All they need now is a little bit more support. And perhaps eventually better coaching.

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    1. Yes it realy is a disgrace the way the PFF treats the women. They are trying to qualify for the World and AFC Cups and the president doesn't even acknowledge that they exist.

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    2. Maybe the president should've mentioned them, but it's still early days. Maybe they don't have a concrete plan yet. At the same time, so what if they're trying to qualify for the the World Cup and Asian Cup? You make it seem like those are realistic targets this time around!

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    3. Winning the SEA Games and qualifying for the AFC final round are both realistic targets for the much improved WNT. Nobody expects them to beat Japan, Australia, South Korea, or China to qualify for the World Cup. However, because of the North Korea drug scandal at the Olympics there is an opportunity to compete for the 5th spot. It is a long shot but it is the best chance that any Pilipinas team has had to qualify. The PFF should be working hard to give them the resources they need to have a successful 2013. To be fair, this president has been better than the last one, but failing to mention the national team with the greatest chance of success is a bad start to the New Year.

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    4. Winning the SEA Games? Which one, 2013? If so then you're having a laugh. Just like the MNT, the women have never come close to winning the SEA Games or the AFF C'ship. They gain a bunch of American based talent and barely win a small tournament which didn't involve any national teams and all of a sudden it's realistic the win the upcoming SEA Games? lol!

      Qualifying for the 2014 Asian Cup is a little more realistic but still very doubtful. Being group with Thailand is tough and then there's Iran which are quite competitive and are a bit of an unknown as far the Philippines is concerned.

      Therefore, if it's already doubtful that they'll qualify for the Asian Cup it's sure as hell will be even more when it comes to being in the top 5 of the tournament and gain qualification to the World Cup even without the participation of North Korea.

      Yes, they should put a bit more focus and resources towards the women's programs but as said, they might not have a concrete plan just yet. At the same time, it doesn't you need to hype them up to no end to make your point about having more focus towards the women's game!

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  6. What about the U17 Teen Azkals, U14 Little Azkals and Kasibulan Project 2019? Do you also have plans for them Mr. President?

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  7. high-quality filfors are welcome addition to the team, but i hope the national team recruits more of the local talents this year - a lot of football writers and affcionados have been mentioning tats pasilan, jerry barbaso, patrick deyto, etc, even mark hartmann. sana they're given a try if they try out or the NT

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