the philippines and international football

The World Cup is going on right now, and in every game there is a tremendous display of national pride of all the nations in the stands and in their home countries. If you don't know what I mean, just go to youtube and search for "world cup" or "brazil" or "korea" and you'll see.

So it made me wonder: How did the Philippines fare in attempting to qualify for the World Cup? Do we even have a national football team??

Well.....yes. We do.



The most comprehensive site I could find about Philippine football is this one. there's also a nice article about Philippine football here.

The latter article states that international football used to be popular in the Philippines:


"...In 1913, when most of Asia probably had not even heard of the game, the Philippines set about creating football history when they organised the first ever Asian international match. Something never to be forgotten, Philippines played China in Manila with the hosts winning the game 2-1. That was the start of a game that would extend to the length and breadth of the Asian continent.

But a change of guard - the Spanish invaders left the islands to the Americans - resulted in the game losing its popularity in its birthplace. Football, instead of becoming the number one sport amongst Filipinos, ended up playing second fiddle to American sports...."

There's a more in-depth article on the history of Philippine football here.

an excerpt from that article:

"...Meanwhile, SMC protege Juan Cutillas, after leaving the country in 1965, came back a balikbayan doctor in 1968 and started to crowd the football headlines. Armed with a Physical Training diploma from Madrid, a Spanish national coaching license, a doctorate in medicine and a lot of corporate influence, Cutillas literally made football "tsunamis."

The Spanish doctor steered a spectacular win by a Philippine Selection over a visiting pro team, Dallas Tornadoes, 2-1, in 1968. The former Atletico Madrid midfielder coached the San Beda Red Lions and led them to three consecutive NCAA victories in as many seasons since 1968. From that year on, Cutillas has handled the national football team as coach and other sports as trainer. The only time he did not coach a national team was in '73 and '74 when he was relieved by Florentino Broce. Cutillas also led the SMC team to five championships in seven PFA tournament stagings.

In 1971, Cutillas, going through with tradition, selected four top-caliber Spanish players and one Chinese to beef up the Philippine Selection. The formula again worked as prestigious tournaments insisted on having them on the field.

Participating in such prestigious events as the Merdeka Invitationals, Pesta Sukan, Indonesia's Anniversary Cup and the President Park tournament, the Philippine Selection managed to come up with rare feats in beating Thailand, Singapore and mighty Korea. Simply stated, it is Philippine football popularity resurrected.

That's as far as football has gone in the Philippines. For when the Spaniards Lozano, Cuenca, Gutierrez and Roxas left the football scenario due to lack of funds, basketball went in for the kill as it grabbed the spotlight and the crowd. It's turning professional in 1974 is but a nail in football's coffin...."


According to FIFA's profile of the Philippines here, they didn't even try to qualify for this year's Cup.

Some facts from that site:

Despite being the oldest national team in Asia, the Philippines did not take part in preliminaries for a FIFA World Cup until the 1998 tournament. Unfortunately, they have only been able to dream of qualification so far.


In qualifying for Korea/Japan 02, the Philippines finished bottom of a group won by Oman. In six games, they only won a single point in the home game against Laos.


The Philippines, where the Asian Football Confederation was founded on 8 May 1954, celebrated their finest victory back in 1917 with a 15-2 demolition of Japan. Their team will not take part in qualifying for Germany 06.

Oh well. There's always Pacquiao to cheer for.

BTW, his fight w/ Oscar Larios @ the Araneta Coliseum is on July 2. HBO isn't covering this, so I don't know how to watch it yet.