At long last the Philippines will now have a national football league to call its own. In a press conference held last September 6, 2016 at the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas, the Philippine Football Federation announced the formation of the Philippines Football League.
The Philippines Football League is designed to be a nationwide football competition. Key cities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were eyed to hold one team each based on a Nielsen study commissioned by the PFF.
Integral to the PFL’s formation is PFF President Nonong Araneta. Araneta believed that five thousand paying fans will help the clubs recover their logistical and personnel expenses. He then added that specific companies were identified to hopefully support the clubs and the league itself.
One of the question marks, though, of the PFL is whether or not Filipino fans will warm up to it. For Araneta, the support will be community based.
“Dapat isusupport ito ng community and we will be conducting seminars for fanbase development which will be done by Asian Football Confederation. Kasi meron ganun eh, how do you develop the fanbase in each locality? This will be taken cared of by AFC”, expounded the PFF President.
A possible consequence of the PFL’s success is that more players will be inspired to play football. Araneta explained, “They have something to look forward to eh, professional league. Mas focused na sila ngayon na if I’m a player, I have a place to go. Dati kasi, United Football League lang dito sa Manila eh but now we’re talking about country-wide.”
There are still so many queries about the PFL’s long-term viability. Araneta admitted that there were still a lot of things which were needed to be addressed and affirmed that there was a franchise fee which would lock affirm their stay in the league.
“I think naman if we can show the clubs, the owners that this will be viable, then I don’t see any reason why it can’t be successful. But the most important thing is that the best players in the Philippines will play in the league”, concluded Araneta.
