Rizal future site of soccer under lights

MANILA, Philippines - The Azkals’ home match against Kuwait slated July 28 at 7 p.m. could just well be the start of regular night football matches at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, which has been revitalized as a football site.

“One of the things we are looking at is the possibility of setting up a night football league at Rizal Memorial Stadium,” commissioner Jolly Gomez of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) said during a recent inspection of the 70-plus-year-old facility.

“I think you’ll get more interest if games are played after work. We’ll try to explore this with La Salle coach Hans Smit and the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and see what we can do,” Gomez added.

Site of some of Phl football’s most memorable scenes of yesteryears, the historic Rizal has undergone facelift to make it fit for major football events, such as the well-attended Azkals-Sri Lanka second leg in the 2014 Fifa World Cup Asian qualifiers first round action over the weekend.

Rizal’s pitch renovated by De La Salle University in an agreement with PSC in 2009-10, while the PFF made some refurbishing of its facilities recently, installing individual seats, renovating the bathrooms and dressing rooms, and fixing the lighting system, for the Azkals-Brave Reds afternoon encounter.

With Rizal’s lights ready, the PFF has also tapped the venue for the return leg of the Phl-Kuwait second round series, setting it night.

PFF president Nonong Araneta welcomed the idea. “Night games, being relatively cooler than daytime games, could help draw more people to football. But we also have to consider costing since we’ll be using lights for those games.”