MANILA (7 Feb 2012) – Football in the Philippines goes into the grassroots this week with the launching of the Calamba Football Festival – a year round development programme sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and FIFA.
The Calamba Football Cup was announced by Calamba City Mayor Joaquin Chipeco Jr, which involves boys’ Under-9, U13 and U17 as well as for girls U17. The tournament will be spread out over several legs throughout the year up until December this year.
More than 600 players from 58 school teams have confirmed their participation.
“The program is actually a revival of the ‘Kasibulan’ program of the PFF that produced a number of players that earned membership in the past and present national teams,” said Chipeco.
Other than the Calamba Football Cup, the other events which will be organised this year are the Calamba-Laguna Invitational Cup in April, the Calamba National Cup in July and then the Calamba International Cup in December.
In all, the PFF will be holding 144 Festivals of Football in at least 24 provinces as part of the Kasibulan program for this year alone. It is expected that this will involve the participation of over 15,000 participants.
FIFA Vice President for Asia and Executive Committee member Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein will be on hand to personally launch these programs.
