Azkals set up training camp in Qatar

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Azkals will set up training camp in Qatar to gear up for next month’s resumption of the Joint FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.

Seventeen months after their last official game, the Azkals will return to the field to work out in Doha from May 18-31, and from there will proceed to Souzhou, China for the actual battle.

The Pinoy booters, who last saw action in November 2019 in a 0-1 loss to Syria in Dubai, will resume their Group A campaign on June 3 against Guam with matches against host China (June 9) and Maldives (June 15) up ahead.

“As we know, it’s so hard to train here in the Philippines right now so we’ve decided to do the training camp in Qatar,” Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Nonong Araneta said in a virtual presscon with general secretary Edwin Gastanes, Azkals team manager Dan Palami and coach Scott Cooper.

The Qatar Football Association is hosting the camp not only for the Azkals but also for other teams like Palestine and Syria.

“We’re lucky other teams are there also so we can have friendly matches before we go to China. And China is also arranging for the flights of the Group A teams to emanate from Qatar so ideally we should be in Qatar doing the training camp,” said Araneta.