30 July 2011

'More futsal courts needed to sustain PH football'

by Dennis Gasgonia, abs-cbnNEWS.com


MANILA, Philippines – To sustain the popularity of football in the Philippines, Filipinos should be encouraged to play the sport.

To do this, according to football analyst Bob Guerrero, more futsal fields should be developed so that fans can enjoy the sport popularized locally by the Philippine Azkals.

“There are a lot of basketball courts all over the country. What I'd like to see is more futsal goals to be developed,” Guerrero said in dzMM’s Sports Talk.

Futsal is a scaled down version of football. It is played between 2 teams with 5 players each.

“It's a great game to develop skills, dribbling skills... all you need is a couple of goals, a bag of balls and you can play football,” said Guerrero.

Other guests on Saturday’s Sports Talk include Pinoyfootball.com columnist and sports writer Cedelf Tupas, and Azkals players Simon Greatwich, Rob Gier, Misagh Bahadoran and Nate Burkey.

Guerrero hopes that the sport flourishes in the Philippines just like in Japan, whose team recently won the Women’s World Cup.

“I'm hopeful what happens in the Philippines is the same thing that happened in Japan, where baseball is more popular. The passion and interest should be sustained,” he said.

‘Play-for-pay’
Tupas, for his part, stressed the need to develop a professional football league to encourage Filipinos to really take up football.

“Sometimes it's not just about playing for the country, you want to make a career also,” he said.

He said local players should be provided an avenue where they can use their football talent.

“If you're taking up football as a sport early on, wala kang patutunguhan… you don't have a future with it. You go to college for example, when you play football and get a college scholarship, after that, should you continue playing?” said Tupas.

Grass roots
According to Gier, the country can take advantage of the sport’s current popularity by implementing a comprehensive grass roots program.

He said that for the sport to really flourish in the Philippines, the locals should continue what the Azkals have started.

“We're gonna need players that gonna step into our shoes, it's important that we generate as many new playing football as possible, we gonna need find local guys out there,” said Gier.

“This is all about football,” he said. “We just want people to play the game and love it as much as we do. We're grateful now that we have the chance to set this up.”

Tupas said the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) plays a major role in sustaining the initial success.

“Now it's a challenge for the PFF to convince DepEd (Department of Education) again to put more emphasis on football as a PE sport,” he said.

ABS CBN News

14 comments:

  1. "To do this, according to football analyst Bob Guerrero"

    Since when did Bob Guerrero become a fucking sports analyst?!? Let alone a football analyst?!? The guy barely knows jack shyte about football then he becomes a commentator for national team matches and is all of a sudden an "analyst"?!?! LOL!! Totatl BS!! He should really just stick to commentating on billiards/pool and even basketball events.

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  2. tama ka pare i agree!!!

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  3. si rick olivares ba dating football player ba yan or coach?

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  4. Kuwait will face South Korea, UAE and Lebanon in WCQ Round 3. It could have been us. But will surely be very tough for us (and good for the sake of experience).

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  5. ^ It could have been us.

    If we advanced we would'v not been put in the same group with Lebanon because we must'v been seeded in the bottom pot as well. So it would have been tougher, like South Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE and us.

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  6. "Kuwait will face South Korea, UAE and Lebanon in WCQ Round 3. It could have been us."

    You people seriously need to get over the fact that we lost fair and square to Kuwait. But more importantly we were never going to defeat them especially on aggregate. So all this "it could/should have been us" in the next round needs to stop. Because it also makes it look like you're complaining that we didn't advance and it's getting beyond ridiculous already!

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  7. i was told that rick olivares used to play for ateneo.

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  8. Olivares a former footballer? He doesn't look like it at all. lol

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  9. Paano naging football analyst si Olivares?lol

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  10. you need not be an expert to make suggestions to uplift football on all fields and in all areas...

    The fans clamor for more action , BASKETBALL is still the Sport than can give them that , more so with the NBA players supporting it.

    We have to UNITE FOOTBALL...we have to start somewhere , and we have to support each other and be open minded in accepting any suggestions, proposition , ideas , plans and criticism. It is not the question of who is who in the Sports arena, we need you opinion ,and this site is one of the tool that can help us share our knowledge, air our grievances and voice out woes and joy for the sake of FOOTBALL...with no Bias, Prejudice and Favoritism but with Fairness and Equality to all .

    UNITE FOOTBALL

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  11. Remember the time when Football has None...
    -no support
    -no development
    -no growth
    -no media coverage
    -no fans
    -no critics
    -no funds
    -no Right officials
    -no Unity
    -NO...

    With all of this , the players and teams , understood , coped , managed , improvised , compromised ,suffered , played but never did they surrendered. They were the one's who took on the initiative to bring life again to a beautiful sport , win or lose. It is not all for Glory and Praises... it is for FOOTBALL!!!

    UNITE FOOTBALL

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  12. Azkal in Jakarta1 August 2011 at 06:54

    Well I hope that football will not just be a fad like badminton (about 7 years ago) and running (about 3 years ago). We Filipinos have a tendency to be trend followers I hope that we can be consistent this time around. I played football since I was 7 years old now that I am in my mid-30's (and happy to be still playing) I am REALLY happy that its getting the limelight finally! About the grassroots program some 12 years ago FIFA/PFF & DEPED had a program called "KASIBULAN 6-12" its aim is to introduce football to public school and teach the teachers how to teach/coach children to play the game, given its scope and funding from FIFA it gained a foothold on the public education scheme but it lost steam when FIFA support was cut. This was a catalyst back then the PFF and the Government should have continued even without FIFA involvement, just imagine where that program be now - we could have had a more structured grassroots set-up in the public schools where there are more pool of players than the selected private schools (with the exception of Western Visayas where football is not exclusive to private institutions) As for the other concerns we have a long way to go, currently I am based in Indonesia where football is a way of life, here I get to play 3x a week with my office team(futsal) and my community team(regular football) and get to watch football games in real time in the local channels - everything stops for football. I guess the main thing here is Indonesia has the football culture already imbibe in them, for us filipinos we need a shift and a change in mentality but I know we will get - just like the game, it requires patience and fortitude we will get the goals just get everyone in the team ...BELIEVE!

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  13. Bakit Hindi ninyo rin I question ang credibility ng ibang sports commentator...
    the likes of Mr. Nathaniel , Chino Trinidad , Dianne Castillejo o baka gusto niyo rin isama pa si manny pacquio.

    walang personalan ... footbal lang.

    Discrediting these people would do us no good , sana kung mali ang sinasabi nila then you have all the liberty to correct them. It is not the position , it is not the title , It is not the person. Kahit makipaginuman ako sa kalye at football ang pinaguusapan , masaya na ako doon . kahit ang batang nagtitinda ng sampaguita sa ruins (sucat) at sabihin sa'yo na pag kumita siya , ipambibili niya ng t-shirt ng azkal would make my world tumble (i bought him one). Kahit na sa Rizal na ultimo janitor na walang pambili ng ticket at sabihin sa'yo na masaya na siya sa labas, binigay ko ang ticket ko. Point is kahit sino pa sila , these people will be analytic , probing , wanting and will learn to love the game...we need the people up and the people down, and we need to explore all avenues to reach out to them.

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  14. Azkals from jakarta...
    I hope so too, but i think it will not be a fad. Football has been there since 1880 maybe longer.The game is internationally governed by FIFA and was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sports.
    Although Badminton was also played as early as the 18th century governed by the Badminton World Federation , it will fall short of popularity compared to the countries supporting Football .
    If the Philippines is known to be trend followers, i hope they will wake up and realize the fact that we are way way behind that trend and we should appreciate , and value what is classic , ageless , timeless , and a lasting sport.

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