UFL plans to expand nationwide

CEBU, Philippines - Three to four years from now, the United Football League (UFL) will be played not only in the National Capital Region but also in other parts of the country.

UFL technical director Richie Gannaban told The Freeman that they have plans of expanding UFL matches in some key areas of the Philippines.

“As of the moment, to fulfill this plan is quiet difficult because we still have to check the logistics and we need enough support for the realization of this plan. Maybe three to four years from now, this will happen,” said Gannaban.

Gannaban added that they are also contemplating on adding the youth division and a women’s category to the league.

“We all know that football has been played already by our youth and so with our ladies that’s why are bent on adding two more categories in the UFL,” he said.

 UFL stars had a short visit in the Queen City of the South to grace the awarding ceremonies of the 2nd Sinulog Football Cup over the weekend and at the same time promote UFL, which will open on January 14 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium and will be aired live by Aksyon TV of TV5.

 The UFL booters who had a 'meet and greet' session with their fans in this portion of the archipelago were led by Cebu’s pride and Global Smartmatic goalkeeper Paolo Pascual along with Fil-Iranian Misagh Bahadoran, Nestorio Margarse of the Philippine Army, Mark Hartmann of Meralco Loyola Sparks and Lexton Moy of Kaya FC.

Their presence surely served as an inspiration for the young soccer players who want to follow in their footsteps someday.

“We wanted to promote football in all regions in the country. With AKTV Sports coverage, we will have these players be more visible. These young football players will have something to look forward to after college,” said Gannaban.

 Gannaban, meanwhile, lamented the fact that there are only a very few good playing fields in PHL.

“We have a lot of players but we lack good venues for the matches. We would like to address this problem because we only have a few good venues in NCR and we’re still looking for other venues in the nearby provinces,” he said.