Liverpool in the Philippines? Maybe

BANGKOK – National Basketball Association greats are taking turns visiting basketball-crazy Philippines but will there come a time when a high-profile Premier League club such as Liverpool FC finally brings its act to Manila?

Sounds wishful thinking but a top exec of the Reds’ sponsor Standard Chartered Bank is not closing the door on what looks like a long-shot idea.

“We’d love, from the Standard Chartered perspective, to bring them to all our markets and the Philippines is a key market for us,” Neeraj Swaroop, Standard Chartered’s regional chief executive for South East Asia, said in a press conference for the Bangkok leg of the LFC 2013 Asian Tour that the bank is presenting.

“And I think they (Liverpool) do have the philosophy of going to markets they’ve never been before. For example, Indonesia (the second stop of the LFC’s  three-nation tour), it was the  first time they took the team to Jakarta. I’m sure as with (the bank’s) work with blindness (Seeing is Believing regional campaign), the Philippines could fall into that,” he added.

Liverpool’s living legend Ian Rush, the Reds’ all-time best scorer with 346 goals, also said there’s a possibility. “I think so. In Indonesia, it was the first, in Australia it was the first,” the Welsh expressed.

But hold your horses, the Philippines – a nation where football is not yet the sport – should first show it’s worthy of a Liverpool stop. How? By taking the lead from Jakarta and Melbourne, where a sea of supporters ranging from 80,000 to 90,000, greatly received the Premier League side the past three weeks.

“There was tremendous support in Indonesia and Australia and I think when you report back and there’s tremendous support, yeah, we have to take Liverpool to them. And that’s what this is all about – bringing the club to people who don’t have the chance to go to Anfield. If the support is big out there, the club will look at that situation,” said Rush.

It goes without saying that Liverpool needs a cavernous stadium to play in and accommodate supporters, like Rajamangala here. And Rizal Memorial, sadly, does not fall in this category, unless of course, major structural changes are forthcoming or a new, bigger one is built.

Since entering into a partnership with Liverpool, Standard Chartered has helped bring the Reds to China, Malaysia, Singapore, and now Indonesia, Australia and Thailand.

 â€œThere are 100 or so countries, we’ll get around to all of them sooner or later,” Gavin Laws, special advisor to SCB on Liverpool sponsorship, said in jest.

The five-time European champions Reds are the latest of the football deities to drop by Thailand to a rousing reception. They’ve held a series of activities since arriving Thursday night, from facing the press to conducting clinics to meeting the fans. Liverpool plays the Thai national team tonight at Rajamangala.

“From the moment we arrived at the airport, it’s been a fantastic welcome,” said Laws. “Some very brave people even decided to chase us in scooters, taking pictures while doing 100 (km/ph), impressive indeed.”

Liverpool and Standard Chartered recently extended their partnership to two more years, joining hands in doing work for the community works, particularly programs for blindness and HIV-inflicted people.