Suzuki scores a kick

The Suzuki website says “It’s a long time coming.”

I say that might as well be for both Suzuki and Philippine football. It’s been a long time coming. Philippine football has long been in the doldrums and no one seemed to care. Until last year when the Philippine Azkals frenzy went as rabid as it can get with new-found success in the international scene.

As if it was a coincidence, the Azkals’ first bite to glory was recorded in the AFC Suzuki Cup. That Azkal bite must have been venomous to say the least as Suzuki got infected by the Azkal rabies like the rest of this nation which suddenly converted into football fans.

Last Thursday, Suzuki celebrated its entry into the Philippine football scene with the staging of the Regional Finals of the PFF Suzuki Cup U23 National Tournament at the Tionko field. The homegrown squad of Davao City will try to advance to the Nationals as it defends its turf against North Cotabato, Dipolog City and Zamboanga City.

Suzuki’s representatives led by Catalina Calderon, Suzuki Philippines Managing Director and Eilleen Esteban, Advertising and PR Supervisor, along with Philippine Football Federation’s Red Avelino, announced the partnership of Suzuki and the PFF in developing Philippine football most specifically the U23 division or players aged 23 and below. The tournament is also serving as the national qualifying school for the next generation Azkals and the Philippine team to the SEA Games in Indonesia this November.

At the moment, there is only one Davao player in the Azkals line-up and he is Peter Jaugan, a North Cotabato native who honed his skills playing in Davao football leagues.

“We are here to partner with PFF in developing football in the country and this is one of our two major thrusts in sports, the other being motor sports,” Calderon told sportswriters at the DSA Forum at the Tower Inn.

“Suzuki Philippine’s commitment begins with this tournament and we will continue to partner with Philippine football in the same way our mother corporation Suzuki Motors is supporting the AFF,” Esteban adds.

By the way, also supporting the football tournament is Phoenix Petroleum Philippines whose branding guy Neb Bulaclac is also abuzz with the dressing up of the Tionko facility.

With Suzuki’s entry into Philippine football, there is much to look forward to in terms also of grassroots development. Red Avelino assures that while they are practically browsing the globe for Fil-foreigner players, the PFF is also making sure that there is a steady flow of talents from the home-grown football farms like Davao.

“We have a template for developing our grassroots program and our player recruitment,” says Red Avelino.

Red refused to divulge on the budget configuration but assures everyone that there will be a balance between developing our home-grown talents and recruiting players overseas.

With Philippine football getting a shot in the arm from corporate backers like Suzuki, looks like the long time coming is worth the wait after all.

Just asking, perhaps Suzuki can do as well support another football discipline—beach football. Beach football will be hitting the sands of Davao in June with the 2011 Kicksand Beach Football Series organized by the Beach Football Association of the Philippines and handled by its marketing group F1 Event Solutions, Inc.

It’s a long time coming too.

Getting the kick in Subic

Off to a rousing start.

That's how I describe it. The F1 Events vehicle got off to a podium finish right on the first race of the season. I love the blinding speed at how things happen lately. Never mind some trips to the pitstop for some limp. But that's putting things rather on a figurative note.

The F1 Event crew spent the weekend at Subic Bay's Boardwalk Waterfront area for the kick-off leg of the 2011 Kicksand Beach Football Series. The event is a regular menu of the Beach Football Association of the Philippines (BFAP) and has been played in Subic since 2000. This year, BFAP President Mike Athab and his able sidekick Rea Villa are thinking of bigger things ahead. With F1's lift, BFAP is expanding its tournaments to the south with a swing in breath-taking Boracay and disarming Davao this May and June.

Before we move away from Subic though, here's looking back the kind of kick we got in Subic.

Talk about the competition? Tough. Real tough. The action was as simmering as summer. It was as close as it could get.

From the eliminations to the finals, the games were classic mano a mano.

When the sand cleared at Subic sundown on both Saturday and Sunday, Libertas FC frustrated a fighting Kick Me FC in the women's side while the Mama Sitas spiced-Manila FC escaped with a narrow win over Amihan FC via shootout in the men's competitions.

Beach football is fast and the action is limitless with the soft pitch. Very exciting. Can't wait to the next stop in Bora and Davao where a lot of teams should be starting to prepare by now for Kicksand.

See you at the beach.