Short but swift - are Pinoys built for football?

With the Azkals showing the way, the current positive football vibes have everyone asking: are Filipinos really better suited for the beautiful game? It’s a sport that does not require height, but rather speed, coordination and agility. The average male Filipino height is 5’5". No Philippine basketball team has made it to the Olympic Games since 1972 in Munich, Germany. Why then is the Philippines such a basketball-crazed country? There was a time when the Philippines was one of the basketball powerhouses in the world. We dominated international leagues and bred such legendary players as Ambrosio Padilla, Carlos Loyzaga, and Carlos Badion. Fast forward to the 21st century. Where have our basketball crowns gone? Yes, that’s right, to the “big" countries. The Philippines was even suspended by FIBA in 2005 due to politicking and poor performance by the Basketball Association of the Philippines. (In my opinion, however, it’s not our fault that we’re not holding up against 6'9" forwards and 7-foot centers. I actually pity our players when they get banged up by much bigger foreigners.) No matter how much bad PR it gets, Filipinos still bleed for basketball. Today you will find a basketball court, or at least a makeshift ring, in almost every street. Stadiums are jampacked with spectators during college basketball games. But just recently, Filipinos have started following this unfamiliar sport called football. Offside? We’re not really a football country. Only a handful understand its rules, for crying out loud. But that didn’t stop thousands of Filipinos from watching the Azkals face off with Mongolia this week (although a lot of them probably got confused with the offside rule). Everyone went wild when Chieffy Caligdong scored that first brilliant goal. He’s 5’5" but he got past the 6-foot Mongolian goalkeeper. That was agility right there. We have the Azkals to thank for this new interest in the sport. But come to think of it, football was here first, before basketball stole the scene. The Philippine Football Federation was established in 1907 and is considered the oldest in Asia. We are a founding member of the Asian Football Confederation, which was founded right in Manila in 1958. Not only that. One of the greatest football players in history was actually part Filipino. Fil-Spanish Paulino Alcantara was already scoring for FC Barcelona at the age of 15. Playing from 1912 to 1927, he is the club’s all-time top scorer with a record of 357 goals in 357 matches. He even earned the moniker El Rompe Redes (“the net breaker") after he ripped the net with a goal in a game against France. It’s a sport that Filipinos are physically built for. Strength and speed are the most important elements, and we have both. If this is the case, it’s a wonder why football still didn’t make it into mainstream Filipino sporting culture. I can think of four reasons. First: we don’t win in international competitions. In 2006, the Philippines sank to 195th place in the FIFA World Rankings. Good thing we bounced back to 152nd this month. Second: there’s just no place to play football. While basketball is steadily growing in the country – with tournaments and training camps happening all year round – football has been limited to a few venues. We hardly even have a football stadium that complies with international standards. Third: we don’t have a professional league in the country. Spain and England have the two most popular leagues today. Look at where they stand in the world rankings. Fourth: we’re just too busy with basketball. Now, the first three problems have been handled already. The Philippine Azkals are performing really well in competitions (we beat Vietnam 2-0 before we did the same to Mongolia!). There are talks about FIFA sponsoring a world-class football stadium.Smart Philippines has also offered to shell out 80 million pesos for a Philippine professional league. There are no more excuses why we shouldn’t prioritize football. We have the means, and it doesn’t matter if we lack the height. There’s no 10-foot-high ring in football, anyway. Besides, Filipinos may be short, but we sure are swift. So is it time to hang up the basketball jersey and head to the pitch? - KY, OMG, RCJ, GMA News