The Philippine Football Federation announced Friday afternoon two key appointments that it hopes will provide ideas and solutions for the betterment of the sport amidst the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stewart Hall, who led the Azkals in the 2020 AFF Suzuki Cup and 2022 AFF Under-23 Championship, was named as the federation’s technical director while Norman Fegidero, who last handled the national team in 2008, was designated as head coach of the men’s U-23 squad for the upcoming 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam this May and the Azkals Development Team’s 2022 Copa Paulino Alcantara conquest.
“Hall is a UEFA pro-licensed instructor and it’s really fitting that we at the PFF would get a man like him to help us implement the roadmap for football development in the country,” said PFF President Nonong Araneta.
“He will be on top of our technical departments and he has been here since January and he has already met with all the staff members. They have prepared a roadmap that we’ll submit also to FIFA, I think they’ll be coming here in April, to discuss the new roadmap of the Philippine football development under the stewardship of coach Stewart Hall.”
For his part, Hall is excited to take on the role.
While there will be many challenges on the road ahead, the 62-year-old Englishman is up to the task of helping Filipino football players improve their game as well as finding ways to strengthen local programs and competitions.
“We now go on a journey with the under-19 boys, under-18 girls, under-16 boys, under-15 girls. There are tournaments rolled out… We’ve got three or four months of hard work now identifying squads, identifying players, identifying a pool of national team coaches to look after them, which is really, really important, and doing the ongoing training and mentorship of those coaches,” said the former Birmingham City FC Academy director.
“Getting the players into camps and getting them organized and obviously after the lay-off for the pandemic, we want to go into these new tournaments, we want to be competitive. We want to go in there and hold our own and show people that there’s talent within these islands.”
With Hall’s promotion as technical director, Fegidero has returned to the hot seat of being the head coach of a now-prominent program as he will be in charge of the u-23 team in the upcoming SEA Games. As a player, the erstwhile midfielder scored the winning goal against Malaysia in the 1991 SEA Games.
Years later, the 52-year-old Bacolod native led the Azkals in the qualification phase of the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, which was played on home soil. The likes of Chad Gould, Aly Borromeo, and the Younghusband siblings were his players then and they missed out on the AFC Challenge Cup on goal difference. Fegidero will also take charge of the ADT, which will form the core of the SEA Games team, in the CPA 2022 tourney.
“Norman already knows the squad,” said Hall.
“He’s familiar with the players, the players are familiar with him. That’s a very good start. Everybody is comfortable together.”
