MANILA (2 Feb 2011) – The Philippines Football Federation (PFF) planned Premier League received a boost when they received a pledge of PHP80 million (USD1.8million) package from Smart.
Smart Communications is the Philippines’ leading wireless services provider and they have promised the financial package over the next ten years.
The Premier League will organise a local elimination round for each FA, with the champions moving to the regional and then national-level final.
“Out of the PHP8 million (USD180,000 per year) annual money from Smart, we will spend PHP3.5 million (USD80,000) in the Premier League itself. PHP4 million (USD91,000) will be spent for the local qualfiying tournaments. However, we will still be finalizing that,” said Cebu Football Association president Richard Montayre, who was appointed as head of the PFF grassroots program and youth development committee recently.
Other than the Premier League in 2011, the PFF are also working on organising trials for the Under-13, U14 and U16 teams.
“The Visayas tournament will be held at the end of February in San Carlos City while for Luzon and Mindanao, it will be in the first week of March,” Montayre told Sun.Star Cebu.
Unlike last year, when the elimination tournaments were held just in the Visayas and Mindanao, a Luzon regional tournament has been added this year.
The teams joining the selection tournament will be the elite squads of the different areas of the Philippines.
Montayre said the coaches of each age group will be attending the tournament to select the best players to represent the country’s youth teams.
