The 15th Aboitiz Football Cup will open with no less than the Philippine Azkals as special guests on Nov. 11 at the Aboitiz Sports Field in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
The presence of the country’s men’s senior football team was confirmed by its manager Dan Stephen Palami, who was in town yesterday for the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement with the Cebu Football Association and the Philippine Football Federation for CFA’s hosting of the international friendly match between the Azkals and the Singapore Lions dubbed as the “Faceoff”.
The Azkals will just be one of the attractions as the CFA vows to bring back the Aboitiz Football Cup to its position of being the biggest 11-a-side tournament in Cebu.
Rico Navarro, one of the CFA board members, said that there has been some concerns that the tournament is losing its brand equity and CFA’s task is to bring it back as Cebu’s premiere football league.
As part of the CFA’s plan to bring back the tournament’s prestige, they have concocted a fun-filled opening ceremony as opposed to the traditional opening ceremonies.
Aside from the Azkals, the opening day will resemble a festival with the holding of parlor games such as a juggling conest, x-mark the spot, longest boot, longest throw, slalom race, longest goal, and head to head volleying.
FREE TICKETS AT STAKE
These fun games will be open not only to the participating teams but also to spectators with the winners to go home with a ticket to the Azkals versus Lions match.
More tickets will also be raffled off during the opening ceremony.
Booths will also be set up for food and drinks as well as for photos.
At least 130 teams have already signed up for the tournament.
The number of participants is expected to go up with the deadline of submission of entries set on Nov. 9.
Categories to be featured are players 6, players 8, players 10, boys 12, boys 14, boys 17, U23, girls 17, ladies’ open, BPO, 38-Above and the men’s open.