Thursday, July 10, 2008 CebuFA starts prepation for busy football season
BEFORE the much anticipated Aboitiz Cup, Cebu City will play host to a series of competitions, leading up to the Aboitiz event, which is tentatively set to open on Sept. 13.
First up on the calendar is the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) Regional Football Competition slated on the first week of August, where Cebu’s best foot–ballers will be pitting skills against those from Bacolod and the powerhouse Iloilo team.
The Cebu team hasn’t finalized the roster players yet but the coaching staff, headed by Don Bosco’s Coach Glenn Ramos, had already handpicked 30 players, who will tryout for the squad in which 20 of the elite players will be chosen to represent Cebu.
With just less than a month left before the tournament, Cebu Football Association’s (CebuFA) Richard Montayre wants to complete the team’s lineup soon so that the team can start practicing for the daunting task ahead.
“We will have a meeting next week so that we could finalize the lineup of the team,” Montayre told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview.
The winning team will then represent the region in the national finals.
The regionals will be followed a series of football festivals hitting Cebu starting August.
First up will be a two-day football festival on Aug. 16, which is organized by San Roque Football club.
The tournament features teams from Cebu competing in a 7-aside tournament in several age divisions ranging from 8-under to 38-above divisions.
The week after that, on Aug. 23, it is Mizuno turn to stage another football festival.
On the other hand, to improve the level of football in Cebu, the PFF, the country’s governing body for football, will be sending representatives to train the Cebu FA referees.
Montayre feels that it would be advantageous if the trainers will be able to share what they’ve learned to the Cebuano referees before September to improve their officiating in time for the upcoming grand tournament, which is the Aboitiz Cup. (EKA)
