AFC President’s Cup

Everything is happening so fast that you’ve got to keep up with the pace. That’s basically the game of football where a Barcelona can be the most dominating team in the world, yet be dominated themselves by Bayern Munich to the tune of 7-nil. In an actual game, a team that dominates possession of the ball can still lose the game if it can’t react quickly to the counter attacks of the opposing team. So where does this all lead us?

The AFC President’s Cup. Fresh from hosting Face Off: Azkals vs Lions last November, Cebu is back in the international football scene, but this time this is no friendly. This time, it’s not just a one day thing. This time, it’s a tournament. It’s a competition. A real tournament with all games counted to determine qualifiers for a next stage. It’s group play time for the AFC President’s Cup 2013 at the Cebu City Sports Center, and Cebu is doing it again. Teams from Kyrgyzstan (Dordoi FC), Pakistan (KRL FC) and Bhutan (Yeedzin FC) are here to play along with the country’s Global FC (of Azkals team manager Dan Palami) in Group B of the tournament among commercial clubs of emerging football countries in Asia. The top two teams move on to the final stage featuring the top teams of the two other groups of the tournament. Game days are May 8, 10 and 12 with two games played per day. First game kicks off at 4:30pm while the second game starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are now available at SM Ticket outlets nationwide. These are found at the SM Theaters of the SM malls across the country. For us in Cebu, that’s SM City Cebu and SM City Consolacion. Yes folks, for the first time in Philippine football history, your Cebu is hosting the AFC President’s Cup and you should be proud (football fan or not). So in the blink of an eye, Cebu is a bit surprised to be picked to host, but at the same time elated and proud to get it done. Whoa! But do you know what this all means for us? For Philippine football?

When a football fan follows the game, he can’t miss the likes of the World Cup, the UEFA Champions’ League, Copa Libertadores, the Euro Cup, the Copa America, AFC Champions’ League and more. We see all this on TV, drool at the green grass, the deafening crowds and go wishful thinking if we’ll ever have the chance to be part of it as a football country. The Philippines were just mere spectators to all this, but how things have changed. Don’t look now, but it sure looks like our wishful thinking and daydreaming are coming true. We’re no longer bystanders. We’re now part of this international movement, believe it or not. Sure, we are nowhere near the level of the top tier of Asian clubs, but no big deal. We’ve got to start somewhere, don’t we? With the rise of the Azkals, the national team is now a regular and respected fixture at the AFF Suzuki Cup, the AFC Challenge Cup and friendlies against other national teams and commercial clubs. The Azkals play friendlies on June 8, 10 and 12. June 8? Cebu na sad! But we can talk about that later.

And now, we’re part of the Asian interclub scene with the AFC President’s Cup. It’s like tennis getting its first taste of the Davis Cup in the Asia/Oceania region. The country started at the lowest level and slowly moved up (and down) the group levels. The AFC President’s Cup features football clubs from the emerging football countries. They are given the opportunity to compete at their level, get international exposure and give a big boost to football, especially for a host country like the Philippines. These are the kind of events that need to be held if we are to continue growing the sport in the country. Hosting somehow takes us by surprise with questions on whether or not we can do it. Can we host? How will our teams fare? How will the fans react? The “funny” thing is that we as football fans may not “know” how to react to all this. And it’s more due to the element of surprise and a rookie/first time angle. Is this for real? Are we really hosting foreign clubs on local shores? While this may be a norm for boxing, tennis and basketball, it’s a first for football. But that’s also the beauty of it all. It’s a great opportunity to grow Philippine football, and what’s a better place other than Cebu to do it? We’re too proud not to accept this unique opportunity. We’re all too proud that we want to make Cebu stand out and be counted. And it’s all good for both the Philippines and Asian Football. Anytime you get to tap a rich and undeveloped market like the Philippines, you’ve got nowhere else to go but up for the AFC.

Make it Cebu then. Pinoy Pride. Davis Cup. Iron Man. And now the Asian Football Confederation President’s Cup. Let’s do this!

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Time-out: Learn basketball from the BEST. Enroll at the Milo-backed BEST Center basketball clinic; May 6-11 at the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu. For info: 0908-895-2933, 0923-342-8193. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].

Maayong adlaw!

Rico Navarro

0908-895-2933, 0923-342-8193, 583-7196