Football uprising in Cebu

Warning. There’s a football uprising in Cebu and it’s getting to be contagious! Good or bad? Fortunately, it’s all for the good of Cebu football.

Have you noticed that the football scene is abuzz with activities these days? Ever since the 14th Aboitiz Football Cup ended last April, a string of football tournaments has covered the calendar and there doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop it. Last May saw the CAFC’s National Interclub played. This was followed by a series of minor tournaments such as the St. Ignatius Goodwill Games, San Roque Cup, SHS-Ateneo de Cebu Friendship Cup, Centcom Football Cup for Peace and Unity, MEZ HR Football Tournament, a fund raiser festival in Don Bosco, and another tourney run by the Uptown Football Club. The Milo Little Olympics featured 11-a-side football for the first time for both elementary and high school divisions. The finals of the collegiate division of the CESAFI football tournament will be played tonight (USC vs USJ-R), while the CESAFI high school finals will be played next Sunday. Mid-October will see players trooping to Consolacion for the 3rd Engineer’s Cup, while Mandaue City hosts its City Games. The Cebu City Olympics will be played the first week of November. Have you had enough already? There’s more to it coming our way.

Welcome the big boys. The 15th Aboitiz Football Cup, Cebu’s premier 11-a-side tournament across all age groups, kicks off on November 11. But the biggest one of them all will take place on November 15: Azkals vs Singapore in Cebu. Yes, for the first time on Cebu football history, the Azkals are playing an official international friendly game here in Cebu. Instead of watching them on TV, we’ll get to see the likes of the Younghusbands, Neil Etheridge, Stephen Schrock and Chieffy Calgidong up close, live and in action for the first time in Cebu history. Then we’ll have the PFF-Smart Club Championships late November in Dumaguete and the Sun Star Festival before the CVIRAA is held early December. As the year turns over to 2013, you’ll hear about the Sinulog Cup, Don Bosco/St. John Bosco Festival, Thirsty Festival, CIS Friendship Cup and more.

I’ve stopped counting how many football tournaments have been played and are yet to be played but one thing is sure. There surely isn’t a lack of football action in Cebu. This is great news as the only way to develop the sport is by having more competitions and games for the young and the “not so young.” Faced with this scenario, the Cebu Football Association (CFA) is rushing to make up for lost time to set up an atmosphere/environment for all this activities. (As a disclosure –a proud one at that- this writer is a member of the CFA Board, serving as Vice President.) At the series of minor tournaments, we realized how many football clubs there are in Cebu. Getting 10 teams per age group was easy to achieve as there are an estimated 60 to 70 ballclubs in Cebu. Thus, the CFA is stepping up to refresh, update and bring together all ballclubs to boost the membership of the association. To the CFA Board, it’s like putting the family together for one big dinner. There’s a lot of housekeeping and cleaning to be done by the CFA Board, and a key task that must be done asap is to recognize all those clubs that should make up Cebu Football. After all, what good is a family without children? The “CF” in CFA stands for “Cebu Football” and not just for a few. By gathering everyone back to the family tree, the CFA will then be able to develop a calendar of activities for all. And this doesn’t only refer to tournaments. These activities include refresher courses for referees/officials, coaching seminars for coaches/trainers and even workshops for tournament organizers. To-date, we’ve already had a referees refresher course and a special workshop with the FIFA Southeast Asia office and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) for the CFA officers.

This piece isn’t written to praise or gain applause for the CFA Board. On the contrary, this is done to show all sports fans how active, robust and Cebu Football can become if we all work together for the sake of the sport. Cebu Football was already ripe to burst with action, but somehow didn’t. But now that all these activities are in place, who knows how far we’ll get?

Historically, sports analysts always tagged the B’s to dominate Philippine sports: basketball, boxing and billiards. Don’t look now, but football has just begun to warm up and it’s heating up fast. Join us as we partake of Cebu Football’s uprising.

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Time-out: The Azkals play Singapore on November 15, Thursday. Game time is 7pm. Check out the “Cebu Football” page on Facebook for updates. You can reach me at [email protected].