Azkal star goes back to grassroot football

MULTI-awarded star player of the famous Azkal football club leads a football clinic and tournament for Under 14 and Under 16 potential football players in a football festival in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo on February 22-24, 2013.

Azkal star Emelio “Chieffy” Caligdong, a native of Barotac Nuevo himself, will lead more than 1,000 students with ages 6 to 16 years old coming from 10 public and private schools in Iloilo to undergo a football clinic and tournament.

At least 30 teams were already organized to undergo the training and competition dubbed as “Globe Football Para sa Bayan”, a grassroot football training program to open on Saturday, February 23 at the Barotac Nuevo football grounds for Ilonggo youths.

The program will benefit Ten Moves, a public and private joint campaign to raise resources in order to build 10,000 classrooms in public elementary and high schools all over the country. So far, Ten Moves has already raised money for 3,000 classrooms to help the government answer the classroom backlog.

The campaign for classrooms is spearheaded by the League of Corporate Foundations of which Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp. are members and the Philippine Business for Social Progress in partnership with the Department of Education. From employees of Ayala and Globe alone, the campaign has raised P225,000 to help build the classrooms.

In lieu of tuition fees for those who will enroll their kids in football clinics, the parents pledge to help Ten Moves with P300 as their share in the classroom campaign.

Chieffy was chosen by Globe as sports ambassador due to his passion for football and to drive the company’s advocacy on sport development and promotion of football as a national sport.

Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said that Chieffy “is a living proof that a homegrown talent can figure prominently in the international sports arena, giving Filipinos the pride and honor of being represented by a passionate sports icon like him.”