UFL shifts into high gear with knockout series

MANILA, Philippines - Hostilities in the 2013 UFL Cup are expected to be tougher and fiercer with the last 16 teams starting knockout duels Tuesday at the Emperador Stadium in Taguig.

Ninth ranked Pachanga Diliman clashes with either Forza or Union Internacional Manila FC at 5 p.m. while No. 10 and defending champion Stallion tangles with Cebu Queen City or UIM at 7 p.m.

The Round of 16 marks the start of the television coverage of the 2013-14 UFL season, which will be aired live on primetime every Tuesday and Thursday on Aksyon TV.

UFL heavyweights Stallion FC, Global FC, Loyola Meralco Sparks and Kaya booked spots in the Last 16 along with formidable guest teams including Cebu Queen City United, Manila Jeepney FC and General Trias International.

Also advancing are PFF-Smart national club champion Ceres-La Salle, First Division standouts Green Archers United and Pachanga Diliman and dangerous Second Division teams Union Internacional Manila, Forza, Philippine Air Force, Navy FC, Agila and Cimarron.

United Football League, in partnership with Ticketworld, begins ticketing with the start of the knockout play. Tickets are P50 for bleachers and P100 for grandstand. Football fans can purchase tickets in advance at ticketworld.com.ph and at the Emperador Stadium on match days.

The do-or-die matches begin even as the league still has yet to resolve the ticklish “Rufo Sanchez case.”

There are three pending appeals in this brouhaha. Sanchez is appealing the lifting of his suspension by the UFL; Globalport is also appealing Sanchez’ UFL case with the PFF while Stallion requests both UFL and PFF for the extension of Sanchez’s one-year ban “for continued defiance of UFL’s sanction.

The UFL has named Aris Caslib, Marlon Maro, Rafael Caballero, Carlu Fernandez and Eric Paul Fetalino to a special appeals committee that will look into the matter.