United Football League partners with AKTV; signs 5-year TV deal

United Football League, a local football league in the Philippines has just recently signed a five-year contract with AKTV, a local sports channel as it aims to bolster the game in which the AZKALS have helped kickstarted.

In the contract between AKTV and UFL, there will be two live UFL matches that will be shown every Saturday beginning October 8, 2011 with the televised matches played at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium and non-televised games played at the University of Makati.

The season kicks off with the UFL Cup where 28 teams, including 13 guest squads, will compete for slots in the UFL’s Division II.

Group A: Nomads FC, Baguio FC, Union Internacional FC, Lions FC

Group B: Loyola Meralco Sparks FC, Internacionale FC, Agila FC, Team Socceroo FC

Group C: Global FC, Pachanga FC, Stallions FC, Cebu Queen City FC

Group D: Kaya-Cignal FC, ABC Stars FC, Schwarz, Diliman Victory Liner FC

Group E: Philippine Air Force FC, Philippine Navy FC, Manila All-Japan FC, Laos FC

Group F: Green Archers United FC, Dolphins United FC, Pasargad FC, Forza FC

Group G: Philippine Army FC, Manhur FC, Sunken Garden United FC, and Garuda FC PH

Different AZKALS players will be distributed amongst the different clubs participating in the league.

Loyola Spark FC will have Phil and James Younghusband with former national teammates Mark and Matthew Hartmann.

The Azkals’ Fil-Spanish striker Angel Guirado and Fil-Iranian Misagh Bahadoran will be donning the colors of Global FC.

Kaya FC will have Aly Borromeo, Anton del Rosario, Jason Sabio, Yannick Tuason, and Nate Burkey in uniform.

Philippine Air Force FC has scoring threats Chieffy Caligdong and Ian Araneta in harness while rival Philippine Army FC features Roel Gener and Nestor Margarse.

This will definitely be a fun league to watch as we see the different AZKALS players compete against one another. And with the continued support of the public and the Filipino people,
football is getting a much needed shot in the arm, as it popularity continues to grow in this basketball crazy country.

Long Teng Cup, AZKALS next target

The Philippine AZKALS will be heading towards Taiwan for this years LONG TENG CUP, a four nation tournament in which the Philippines has not won yet. With the experience that the team have gained over the past year, hopes are high that they would be able to win it all.

The Azkals will be playing five international matches in 11 days starting in Sept. 30 when they face Hong Kong in Taiwan. They will also play Chinese-Taipei on October 2 and Macau on October 4.
With a full complement of players, including those based in Europe, the Azkals play an international friendly in Singapore on October 7, before returning home for a date against Nepal on October 11 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

The LONG TENG CUP will be aired live locally over at Studio 23 and BALLS. Game schedule below:

September 30
Philippines vs HongKong 4:30 p.m. (Studio 23)

October 2
Philippines vs Chinese Taipei 7 p.m. (Studio 23)

October 4
Philippines vs Macau 3pm(Kick off @ 4:30pm) on Studio 23

Sports: Azkals to play at Rizal Memorial Sports Coliseum

Finally! A home game within reach of spectators from the metro. Azkals will be playing their home game against Sri Lanka for the first leg of the Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup on July 3, 2011.

After the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) made an inspection of the century old stadium, the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) announced that the Azkals will be playing at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.

In line with that San Miguel Corp. has promised that they will help fund the renovation of the coliseums grandstand seats and score board. Also part of the assistance and grant is the repainting, construction of additional locker rooms and media center which is estimated to cost more than a million pesos.

This is a very welcoming news to all football fans in general and not just Azkals since this would only mean that there would be more football games that will be held in the historic coliseum. Also it will be within an arms reach of football afficionados from Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Sports: Azkals qualifying stage for AFC done, World Cup qualifiers next

The country is still ecstatic with the win that our Philippine football team achieved during the AFC qualifying match with Bangladesh 3-0, following draws against Palestine and Myanmar to advance to the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup’s main tournament next year. With the AFC main tournament scheduled for next year, the Azkals have this year to hone and improve their skills further. We might as well mark in our sporting calendar their next games this coming June 29 and July 3 against a yet to be confirmed opponents as they kick off their World Cup qualifying bid. This will definitely be a step up in the competition as these matches will determine who would advance to the second round of the World Cup qualifying matches. Also playing on the first round of qualifying and possible opponents are Laos, Myanmar, Chinese-Taipei, Macau, Timor Leste, Palestine, Pakistan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Malaysia.

The level of competition of the next matches that the team will be participating are a step higher compared to what they have already experienced during the AFC qualifying tournament so hopefully the Azkals team would springboard from all of their recent successes and continue on giving the Philippines something to cheer about. Though I would like to make an appeal to all *new* football fans especially Azkals fans to make sure that we rally behind our team no matter what the results are. We might not even make it past the first round. Hopefully, we would continuously support our Azkals team even if the results are not on their side.

Sports: AZKALS on the rise

AZKAL fever is reaching its peak and football is starting to gain its much needed break in this basketball frenzy country of ours. With the recent showing of the AZKALS last year in the Suzuki Cup, the support has already trickled in, different individuals from the private sectors are giving out their support to make sure that football gains its momentum and hopefully elevate the level of play of the players. Let us just pray that politics will not ruin the current momentum that they are gaining since this will definitely hamper the progress of the team and also the sport in general. It's time that our government switch their focus on the type of sports that needs to be prioritized, other than boxing we can definitely benefit from playing football as this does not require someone to be a 7 footer in order to be a player, height is not a requirement when you play football unlike basketball. Heck, we might have an even higher chance of getting gold medal in the asian games here rather than basketball.

With the continued rise of support of the filipino public for the Azkals, I am hoping that one of these days, they would be able to capture the Asian Cup Title and hopefully represent the country in the FIFA world cup... That would be awesome! But as a start, hopefully they don't get too excited and let the fame get into their head and continue working hard and stepping up through the challenge.

Football together with boxing is a sport where Filipinos can excel. We have lots of good and natural born players, they just need an avenue wherein they can show it. Hopefully our government realizes this and develops a grass root program aimed towards discovering new talents from different parts of the country.

The AZKALS will be hosting Mongolia in an AFC qualifying match this February 9, 2011 at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod. If you want to watch them play, it will be broadcasted live on Studio 23 at 6:30PM.