THE biggest tournament in this side of the country officially kicks off on Sept. 14 with an opening ceremony at SM Seaside. Though games have been going on for a few weeks already, the tournament, now on its 21st year, the tournament has also expanded with a Luzon edition since last year.
There’s no tournament like the Aboitiz Cup all over the country. Most of the long-running tournaments, including the Alaska Cup, Ceres Cup and even the Thirsty Cup--the three biggest football tournaments in terms of participation in the country--are seven-a-side tournaments.
The Aboitiz Cup features the full game, starting from the Players 11 up to the 45-above. That’s why it goes on for almost four months with the highlight, of course, being the men’s open finals.
I think it’s safe to say that with the Aboitiz Cup, Cebu football wouldn’t be as successful as it is now. The tournament gave Cebuanos that much needed competition to hone their skills apart from the usual school-based events.
I covered the second edition of the event, and mind you the changes since the 1997 edition have been very remarkable. It was just strictly a men’s open event 22 years ago; now it has the age groups for both boys and girls and the men’s and women’s open.
Of course, part of the credit for the success of the Aboitiz Cup goes to the community, and this is something I always love to point out to visiting reporters. You can’t have a months-long tournament without the cooperation of everyone.
A football calendar is so simple a concept but for communities that aren’t united, it is something very difficult to achieve. How so? For Cebu, it’s simple. They plot the schedules of the regular tournaments festivals--Thirsty and SunStar Cup--and schedule the free days for the Aboitiz Cup. Careful consideration is also given to make sure that the age groups involved in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. and the City Olympics won’t have Aboitiz Cup matches on those days.
In the case of Manila, there could be as many as three tournaments using the same venue with the same pool of players on the same day. And that’s not good. Heck, a decade ago, that was the case in Cebu with one champion team suffering fatigue after it played in two finals—Aboitiz and Milo—on the same day.
But not anymore.
So take a bow, Cebu football.