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Friday, September 16, 2005
Aboitiz Cup gets bigger
By Mike T. Limpag
Sun.Star Correspondent
Sponsors are one of the reasons football in Cebu has been on a steady growth.
Cebu football officials say one patron stands above all: Aboitiz.
“Without Aboitiz sponsoring (us), there would be no cornerstone for building football in the city,” Cebu Football Association board member and Cebu International School supervisor Mark Bretherton said during the launching of the 9th Aboitiz season yesterday.
Aboitiz Group Foundation Inc. executive vice president Sonny Carpio said the initial grant for the first Aboitiz tournament nine years ago was P20,000. This year, it has ballooned to P200,000.
Regional
This year’s Cebu Football Association-organized Aboitiz Cup has gone regional with three out-of-town teams joining the Youth Festival this weekend. New divisions will also be added for the coming Cup competitions and a two-division Men’s League will be launched middle of next month.
“The AGFI wanted us to go regional this year,” CebuFA president Jonathan Maximo said.
For the weekend tournament, which will be held at the University of San Carlos Technological Center, teams from Silliman University, Foundation University and Dumaguete FC will send representatives.
Maximo said teams from Cagayan de Oro, San Carlos City and the Makati Football School wanted to join but they heard of the Aboitiz tournament too late and will instead join next year.
Limited venue
This year’s Aboitiz Youth Festival has also attracted over 1,240 players from 109 teams.
“The number could have been bigger but we had to turn down some of the teams because of field limitations,” Maximo said.
This season’s new clubs and schools include Blessed John Seminary, Camp Lapu-Lapu National High School, Cebu Institute of Technology, Center for International Education, St. Scholastica, Cebu City National Science High School, FC Inter Cebu, Don Bosco Missionary Seminary, San Roque FC, Bright Academy and DB Youth-Pasil.
The new divisions this year are the Players 6, Girls 17 and Girls 12.
(September 16, 2005 issue)
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