Cebu Interclub Football Cup opens

Hiroshi FC guns for its third straight Men’s Open title as the Cebu Amateur Football Club’s (CAFC) 13th Cebu Interclub Football Cup kicks off today in two separate venues.
Games will be played at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) in Cebu City and the Aboitiz Sports Field in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
Hiroshi FC will open its title-retention bid against University of Cebu (UC)/Nigeria at the CCSC this morning.
Other categories to be played at the CCSC are the 40-Above and the Under 18 (U18).
To be contested at the Aboitiz Sports Field are the Ladies Open, U15, U13 and U11.
A total of 57 teams will be seeing action in this tournament considered as one of the biggest football competitions outside Manila, eight more than last year’s entries.
Two of the entries are coming from out of town – Ormoc and the Los Amigos from San Carlos City Negros Occidental.
Two foreign teams based in Cebu will also be seeing action—Cebu Korea FC and the UC/Nigeria.
This year, the tournament will also feature a Ladies Open after the category attracted four teams, Ateneo de Cebu (AdC), CTU FC, Samba Girls and USC. Last year, the category was cancelled due to no entries.
Also for this year, the cash prize for the Men’s Open champion was lowered to P40,000 instead of last year’s P100,000.
Francis Ramirez, one of the tournament directors, said that the cash prize was increased to a hundred thousand last year to attract strong contenders from outside Cebu.