Hi everyone, amidst this COVID19 lockdown in my country, I decided to write my first post in Publish0x. And well, I’m not exactly crypto-knowledgeable nor do I have funds to buy into cryptocurrency and experience that world now so I decided to write about something else.

I’m writing about a particular passion of mine --- football a.k.a the Beautiful Game.

Unfortunately, in my country, when it comes to sports, basketball is king. It’s on top of the pyramid, it is almost a fanatical religion, it’s the sport loved by the people, most watched on television and supported by local companies. In terms of ranking, I suppose boxing (thanks to Manny Pacquiao) comes in a distant second, women’s volleyball a further third, and finally, there comes chugging way behind is football.

There are bball tournaments and camps organized all-year long and the televised college games bring in massive ratings and revenue. Most schools have an organized training system in the hopes of nurturing that next bball player who’ll turn professional and, greater still, make it into the NBA. Filipinos religiously follow the professional leagues, amateur leagues and whatever games they can find.

Sadly, local football doesn’t have any of that. It does not enjoy the kind of fan and corporate support that bball gets in the country. Filipino football fans may be considered a niche group. Hardly any fans turns up during league games and presently, there are no televised games. There is the occasional livestream of games in Facebook which, I believe, doesn't even have a play-by-play announcer. 

The occasional World Cup qualifier can fill up the stadium and get broadcast on tv. A decade ago, the National Team played a friendly against the MLS LA Galaxy where even non-football fans came just to see David Beckham. 

Until two decades ago, the thought of a local professional league was a pipedream, much less putting out a competitive international side to qualify for major regional tournaments or craziest of all, making the World Cup.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Ironically, the Phillipines has one of the oldest organized football federations in Asia, the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) was established in 1907. There are some stories of local leagues and teams established back then before WWII put an end to all that. Until recently, most Filipinos had never even heard of Paulino Alcantara, a Filipino-Spanish player who played for the Philippines, Spain, Catalonia and, at the club level, represented FC Barcelona (yes, THE FC Barcelona) during pre-WWII era.

After the war, football was supplanted by basketball thanks to the Americans’ growing influence over Filipino culture. So, while basketball grew as a sport in Filipinos’ hearts and minds, football was just a team sport usually played in school level. Meanwhile, the opposite was happening to our Asian neighbors as they formed their football leagues and federations until eventually becoming regional powerhouses in the sport.

Yet, somehow, football culture was kept alive in certain areas throughout the country. I suppose that football-loving locals as well as expats played the game during weekends in Metro Manila while the sport remained ever-popular in the Ilonggo-speaking provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental. I was born and raised in Bacolod City in Negros Occidental so believe me when I say that football is BIG, at least, in my province and neighboring Iloilo.

Throughout the 80s and 90's, the Philippine National Team would make the occasional headline here and there like causing an upset against a powerhouse team during regional tournaments like the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. Sometime during the 90's, I remember a local professional league being formed in Metro Manila but it folded within the year.

HERE COMES THE AZKALS

In the 2005 SEA Games, the football games were being played in Bacolod City and the National Team were comprised of promising youngsters, among them were two brothers who were part of the Chelsea FC Academy, Phil and James Younghusband, who had Filipino lineage. No, the team didn’t win a medal but the brothers had captivated an entire nation with their youth, good looks and, at that time, superior skill set in football compared to the local players.

The Younghusbands’ entry into the local scene reinvigorated the sport as more sponsors came to the national team. More importantly, PFF executives and football enthusiasts started searching globally for players who had Filipino parentage and roots in the hope that they could play for the national team. Little by little, more Filipino-foreign players came and raised the profile of the national team.  In fact, due to the influx of these players, a new nickname was given to the team, the "Azkals." Azkals is a slang term which meant "asong kalye" or street dogs.

However, more Fil-foreign players didn’t mean instant success on the pitch but the level of skill and competitiveness of the team had gradually improved.  Whereas it was usually expected that the team would get thrashed by opposing sides, now, they would lose by the solitary goal. During the last decade, the Azkals improved on their performances in competitions like the Suzuki Cup and even qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup.

Finally, the greatest outcome of the resurgence of local football was the formation of the Philippines Football League (the PFL), a national professional league currently made up of seven (7) teams which has been dominated by only one team so far, Bacolod City’s very own Ceres-Negros FC.

The PFL has been in existence for only three years so far and has already had quite the existence. It had already lost two teams, the league got dissolved and then reformed again. Recently, the League had been hyping up its success in getting Qatar Airways as a major sponsor which they hope promise greater things for the fledgling league. In fact, the League's fourth season would have begun last March if not for the suspension of play and activities due to COVID19.

Football-loving Filipinos like myself have to wait a bit more for our local football action. Meanwhile, we can only hope and dream that the PFL will eventually become an established league in Asia and that the Azkals can become an Asian powerhouse that compete against the best in the World Cup.

Thank you! (Salamat!)

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with the PFF nor PFL. I'm just a fan, good readers.