155 teams enlist for 15th Aboitiz Football

FOUR more days to go and the Cebuano football community will witness the opening of the 15th Aboitiz Football Cup this Sunday at the Aboitiz Sports Field in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.

Being the premier and longest existing football tournament in Cebu, Augusto “Sonny” Carpio III of Aboitiz said that they are hoping the tournament will become bigger and better to encompass the region. He said that it has always been a dream of theirs that the Aboitiz Cup will be held regionwide.

According to Carpio, they’ve had problems with the conduct of the tournament’s previous editions but are hopeful for a smoother event this year with the new board of the Cebu Football Association (CFA).

Among these is working with the CFA in bringing in teams from other regions to compete in the tournament. Carpio believes this will prove that Cebu is capable of organizing and hosting a tournament on a regional scale.

However, Carpio said that before they can do that, they would have to clean up the ranks first here in Cebu starting with this year’s Aboitiz Cup.

CFA president Pericles “Ricky” Dakay, who thanked Aboitiz for its continued support, said they are working on making this year’s edition as the best in the history of Aboitiz Cup and become the benchmark for future Aboitiz Cup competitions.

Yesterday, the CFA board and the Abotiz inked a memorandum of agreement for the tournament at the Persimmon conference room in Mabolo.

The 15th Aboitiz Football Cup is the new CFA’s first major event since it took over last May.

CFA’s Rico Navarro said that 155 teams have already confirmed their participation which is more than 30 percent increase from last year. The number is expected to increase with the deadline of registration to end tomorrow yet.

As Cebu’s longest running football league and the producer of Cebu’s top players and teams, it is only fitting that the opening of the Aboitiz Cup will also kickoff the biggest week for Cebu football starting with the holding of the Philippine Football Federation’s Board of Governors’ meeting and the National Assembly and ending with the international friendly match between the Philippine Azkals and the Singapore Lions.

Tournament director Glenn Quisido also of the CFA said with this year’s Aboitiz Cup running from November to April, there will be no conflict of schedule with other tournaments unlike last January where a conflict with the Sinulog Cup led to the banning of Springdale FC, which has now been lifted.  /CORRESPONDENT MARS G. ALISON