Envoys Cup for street booters set

MANILA, Philippines - The Ambassadors Cup football tournament, featuring 11- and 13-and-under teams from various disadvantaged communities in Metro Manila, kicks off this Saturday at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) indoor sporting venue in Pasig City.

Games start at 8 a.m. with the awards rites set at 4 p.m. after the matches.

The event is a continuation of an initiative began last year when the ambassadors of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile put up an informal football tournament on the streets of Caloocan City. Since then they have roped in other Embassies to hold this unique tournament with embassies of South Africa, Republic of Korea, Timor Leste, the United Kingdom, The United States, Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Canada committing to support the project.

The concept is that each embassy or nation will be paired up with a community, and the kids will wear the national team jerseys of their respective sponsoring nation when they play in the tournament.

The Philippine Football Federation, UA&P, the Henry V. Moran Foundation, Team Socceroo Football Club, and economist Bernardo Villegas, also a member of the Philippine National Football League task force, are the event’s chief backers while Canadian telecommunications, BPO, and IT company Telus are providing private sector support.

The PFF will also be helping the community coaches of the teams by conducting basic coaching seminars. The kids are undergoing training four times a week during summer and will be the beneficiaries of two field trips – one to watch a UFL game in Emperador Stadium and another to actually play on its artificial grass.

Meanwhile, Brazilian Ambassador George Ney De Souza Fernandes said that a tournament involving the Ambassador Cup teams and the teams from the typhoon-struck Leyte is being planned for November.