New league to help boost Philippine football

The football scene in the Philippines is expected to get a much-needed boost with the launch of the United Football League (UFL) next week. The three-leg series, a build-up event for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, will have a confirmed participation of 16 corporate-backed teams, representing 400 players from various football clubs in the country, plus Korean and Japanese expat teams and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). “Football is arguably the second most played sport in the Philippines next to basketball, with millions of kids playing it all over the country. We need to give them a league wherein they can aspire to play in one day," said Philip Hagedorn, head of the Football Alliance (FA), the prime mover group of the UFL.

While far from being a play-for-pay league, the FA is optimistic that this will be a good opportunity to jumpstart the sport and make it a premiere league in Asia. Hagedorn pointed out that the RP was a pioneer of the sport in Asia and has had its shining moments when it emerged as Far East Games champions in 1913, and later beat Asian powerhouse Japan in 1917 and 1958 in the Asian Games. The RP team became a semifinalist in the 1991 Manila Southeast Asian Games but since then, the country’s presence in the global football arena has waned. Venues for the UFL will be the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, the Ateneo de Manila Football Field, the Philippine Army Football Field, and Nomads Football Field in Parañaque, which will host the opening games on October 17. – Adrian Flores, GMANews.TV