E-sports International lines up more football fields, facilities

MANILA, Philippines – E-sports International has levelled up the playing field in ensuring the continuous development and growth of Filipino athletes with the construction of more football fields and sports facilities this year and beyond.

Expanding to the other parts of the archipelago, the country’s leading supplier of quality sports surfaces and the authority in installation excellence will have another one in Maasin, Leyte this year and the other early 2025 in Lanao del Norte.

These are the Maasin Football Stadium and the Mindanao Civic Center, with a football field as well, while four to six are in line for next year in E-sports International’s non-stop bid to grow the Philippine sports through construction of world-class standard facilities.

The move to cater to the Visayas and Mindanao is only the beginning of a national development for Philippine sports courtesy of E-sports International following also the unveiling of its first construction last month in Southern Luzon — the Romblon Football Stadium.

“If we want to have international athletes, we need to have international fields, too,” said Audris Romualdez, managing director of E-Sports International Inc., in a media roundtable Wednesday at the Manila Polo Club.

“When we build a field, we have the athletes and owners in mind. That’s our very first goal. We want to have world-class athletes and they will not be born in one day, especially if we don’t give them facilities where they can train. We have committed ourselves to that.”

Also in the event was Anthony Apparailly, executive sports director of Acousto-Scan Asia that specializes in testing, certification and accreditation of sports venues for international tournaments of FIFA, FIBA, ITF and Olympics among the few.

Apparailly said the relentless efforts of E-sports International, which built nine of the 11 FIFA-certified fields in the country, will soon bear fruits for Philippine football, pointing to the standardization of football fields as the start in the molding of future international players.

“It’s for the grassroots. As the number of fields peak, we can also see players peaking up soon. It’s important to give opportunity to players with training and games on the field that’s the same standard level in Europe and the rest of the world,” said Apparailly, who started testing and certifying E-sports International’s fields in 2014.

“It’s very important for the Philippines to have a certified field as it will allow development for Philippine football. You will allow players to train on standard fields and be able to host international games.”

For Apparailly, the quality of football pitches in the Philippines is almost the same as Singapore, Taiwan and Korea though China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia still boast greater numbers of quality fields.

Courtesy of E-sports international which is also behind the construction of the country’s 1st IAAF-standard track and field oval at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac for the 30th SEA Games in 2019, Acousto-scan also said the Philippines and the rest of Asia is slowly catching up to Europe and Latin America in terms of world-class standard football fields.

From only eight across Asia in 2007 compared to over 1,000 already by that time in Europe, the continent now has over 600 standard pitches for almost the same number as in the football-crazed South America.

And there is no way to go but up from here on with E-sports International spearheading the way by also building standard golf courses, tennis courts, multi-purpose gyms, track ovals and swimming pools aside from football pitches.

“Standardization is peaking all over Asia and the goal here is the standardization of every field in the world,” Apparailly beamed.