World Cup fever

Earlier this week, the formal launch of the World Cup was held at a known events venue in Pasay City, with several members of the diplomatic corps in attendance, as well as sports luminaries and Hall of Famers in the sport. With the final draw having been held last week, the countdown has become much more thrilling.

“This is a very big occasion not only for South Africa,” said a beaming Pieter Andries Vermeulin, South African ambassador to the Philippines. “It’s the first time ever that the FIFA World Cup will be contested on the African continent. South Africa is humble and proud that they have been chosen to do that. It means a great deal for South Africa and for the continent.”

Of course, the main concern in any large-scale football competition is security, as even the sport’s hooligans are known to travel in pursuit of their favorite teams.

“I can honestly say it is going excellently,” Vermeulin continued. “We had the final draw last Friday, the whole team from FIFA coming out to South Africa. Things are actually ahead of schedule in South Africa, all 10 stadiums we will use - five of them newly built - all 10 of them will be ready. The overall package, we are doing really well.”

The sport is gaining popularity once again in the Philippines, helped along greatly by movement also in the Philippine Football Federation.

“In the national team, what we have done is we have asked the services of a UK coach whom we managed to convince to join the Philippine group,” reveals PFF president Jose Mari Martinez. He’ll be here for a year to coach the national team, and oversee the under 19 and under 16 kids. Our first event is in January when we will be going to Taiwan to play in the Phil-Taiwan tournament. We’re bringing in 9-10 players from the UK, Germany and Netherlands and the rest will come from the Philippines. From there, we start the ball rolling to see if we can have a formidable team by June of next year to be able to compete in the Suzuki Cup.”

“First of all, I’d like to meet coaches of teams playing in the league and ask them what they felt is needed to improve,” says new coach Des Bulpin, who arrived in the country earlier this week. “It’s important that I get their opinion. I saw football in this country but I have not seen enough of it to have an opinion without speaking to them.”

“My dream is by next year as we have already formed the national team and coach we are now looking at two other coaches from Europe that will take on the grassroots and youth development program,” Martinez continues. “I have just come from a trip to Iran, Qatar, Australia and all of these countries are willing to help us in training our coaches to be better coaches, learn more so they will train better players.

That is one of the things we have been doing this year. We have joined all tournaments of Asia to assess our situation.”

It has also helped that the willingness of the Younghusband brothers to play for the flag has encouraged other Filipinos of mixed extraction from Europe to help the cause.

“Basketball is big here, but we had some trials and we have kids coming from everywhere and the young talent is frightening,” Bulpin added. There’s a lot of ability. I heard football here is mainly in the south, so I want to spend some time with the 13’s and 14’s to try and improve the game, because I think the real future of football in the Philippines will be with those players long after I’m gone.”

There are also two event management groups representing different professional clubs in Europe who are trying to launch a soccer-based reality TV show that will gather the best teen-aged players from Asia and bring them to Europe, in the hope that one of them will eventually land a spot on a Premiere League team. This, and programs like the Homeless World Cup, keep on spurring the growth of football in the country.

“It’s composed of the poor, it’s composed of people that have no homes and this is not for the Philippines alone, but for the 50 to 60 countries that have joined this tournament,” Martinez explains. “It’s going to be a yearly affair, so we are looking for kids 16 yrs old that can be on this team that are homeless. And then they have one year where they will experience something new. So when they go back to Philippines, then they will be a little more alive and have a different direction of life. A poor kid that has no home will experience a passport, being in a football team as a member, a trip abroad, and will experience meeting other people in his level of friends that he will see the opportunity that he has, so when he gets back here, we may be able to change his life.”

The PFF is also hoping that the World Cup will provide sustained growth for the sport, so that the country may, one day, joined the world’s soccer elite.