Sustaining the growth of football in Cebu

After a big 2004, football has some sort of a rather flat year in 2005, but this does not mean it was not a good year.

By a flat year, I mean there were not more than the events held in 2004, but still there were a lot of activities that sustained the growth of the football community in Cebu.

Some changes in the Aboitiz Cup that featured a two-day festival before the series of tournaments for the various age categories brought life to the community and encouraged more participants.

Then there is the Hiroshi Football Club that spurred development for the different age groups. Hiroshi has become a by-word in Cebu football and has even gone beyond that by also figuring prominently in volleyball.

If we have more foreign sportsmen like Haruo Iwanaga, then sports in Cebu will definitely grow much bigger.

Barangay Capt. Jerry Guardo of Sambag-I told me how much Mr. Iwanaga has been contributing to sports development in his place. He's not just a blessing to football, but to Cebu sports in general.

Personally, I also attained something in 2005, which I hope to continue for a few more years, that is join tournaments again as a player and not a mere father, who stands on the sidelines.

Thanks to the introduction of the 35 and above division in the tournaments, older guys like this deadline beater now get a chance to relive the good old days.

One thing that this has contributed to the sport is seeing many former players don their soccer shoes again and head back to the pitch.

While there is no lack of action for tournaments in football, what Cebu badly needs is a field where the players and fans can converge.

The Cebu City Sports Center would have been ideal, but the field there is often used for many other purposes including many, which are not sports-related.

The need for a regular venue to play football was discussed a lot of time this year is some meetings I attended, but apart from the talking, I still have to see something concrete from people, who expressed interest to build a field somewhere at the South Reclamation Project.

I was hoping to see some of our politicians work to help make this happen, but then they probably need more prodding to be able to move beyond saying "yeah, I support that project."

Next year, I am hoping to see the field at the SRP become a reality. This development will not only be good for football, but also for many other sports that would need a huge open field.

It is important to have a good venue for any sport to progress. This should be among the priorities of the Cebu Football Association for 2006 and I believe CebuFA president Jonathan 'Maxi' Maximo will have that at the top of his list of priorities.

In a column a few months ago, I also brought up the matter of stores selling more football stuff that means the demand for such is also huge.

The huge demand of course would not be there without the fan base that would look for the stuff that would identify them with their favorite teams.

Then there are also more equipment that are now available for sale, not just for the big people, but most specially for the children, who form a very large bloc of players.

There are more that can be done, but that cannot happen if we leave it all to the CebuFA to work. The government has to do its share, so must the clubs and the schools.

Football has come back to life, but this revival has to be sustained through a lot of hard work and dedication. I'm very sure we have that from the CebuFA and I hope to see them also in the other stakeholders of the sport in this part of the world.