Mama Sita’s spices up the NCR football scene by supporting a football league for kids.
“There is no substitute for the intensity of actual competition,” said PFF Director of Football Vince Santos in last Friday’s press conference for the Mama Sita’s Football For All League.
Philippine football has long been underdeveloped despite a sizable number of young players all over the country. But a lack of proper, well-organized leagues, especially for young age groups, has always been a roadblock.
In Metro Manila, that is set to change.
Condiments manufacturer Mama Sita’s is known for products like adobo marinade, kaldereta mix, and ginger garlic simmer sauce. But their involvement in football is not just a sprinkling of flavoring, but the red meat of the main dish itself: the actual competitions.
The Mama Sita’s Football For All League, an initiative of the National Capital Region Football Association, will run for several months starting from May 24 and on Saturdays. There are three divisions: mixed boys and girls born in 2015 and younger, mixed born in 2013 and younger, and girls born in 2011. The youngest division will play five-a-side games of twelve-minute halves while the older two will play eight-on-eight, thirteen-minute halves, and, notably, with the offside rule. (However, there will be no assistant referees to monitor the offside. The lone main referee will do it on his or her own.)
Santos explained that the timing of the runs when offside is in place is a crucial skill that many young Pinoy players lack because of limited exposure to offside football when growing up. The old Pilipinas Cup used to have the offside rule in youth nine-a-side matches, and it is good that the Mama Sita’s league is continuing it.
There will be an interesting rule in the two younger divisions, a “retreat line” that will prevent goalkeepers from hoofing the ball long, forcing teams to play out from the back.
The five-on-five matches will be played on a 35-by-25-meter pitch, while the eight-on-eight will be played on a 52-by-30-meter field.
The format is a double round robin pure league with no playoffs, and the clubs will likely be playing two or three matches on every game day at the Atleta63 Turf in Bridgetowne, Pasig. The Gutierrez family is a major investor in that facility. John Gutierrez is the president of the PFF, while his brother Miguel heads the National Capital Region Football Association.
There are thirteen different clubs from all over the metropolis and beyond taking part, but it is not clear that all thirteen will participate in each division. Miguel Gutierrez says each team will have about eighteen matches a season. Each club will also be given twenty size 4 footballs, a sweet deal, especially considering that joining the league is completely free for the clubs.
The NCRFA had a similar program earlier in the year, but this appears to be a much more expanded version.
There were clubs representing a whole slew of communities from Metro Manila and beyond, many of which are not known as football hotbeds at all. Clubs from Muntinlupa, Mandaluyong, Valenzuela, Pasig, Las Pinas, and Navotas are all fielding teams. The Philippine Air Force team will be a mix of young footballers from Basa Air Force Base in Pampanga and kids from Villamor Air Base in Pasay.
The National Capital Region, in a sense, is a sleeping giant of Philippine football. It is where UAAP, the nation’s de facto top tier of youth football, is contested. It is also the home of the Philippines Football League. Scores of young footballers enjoy the game in dozens of schools and academies, doing battle every week on scores of immaculate artificial pitches.
But if you look closely, the number of players NCR has produced who have gone on to play abroad for clubs or star in national teams is relatively small. If we talk about players exclusively developed within Metro Manila from a very early age, you have Pat Deyto and Jarvey Gayoso leading the way. Marco Casambre played in Thailand and won a senior cap, the Clarino brothers have been on youth national teams, as have the Tacardons. Papuh Corsame from Tondo played in the SEA Games, as did Daniel Gadia. I may be missing some names, but beyond this cohort, it’s a bit of a stretch.
The overwhelming majority of the elite players the Philippines has produced either got their start in the provinces and then developed in Metro Manila, or spent time abroad to max out their potential, like Sandro Reyes or Dov Carino. It seems that growing up and developing just in the capital is not the best path to success.
But it shouldn’t be the case. Metro Manila has far more proper fields, licensed coaches, competitions, and football-playing schools than the rest of the provinces combined. Incomes are also higher here, meaning more money for all the expenses associated with the game. Therefore, you would think Manila would be the main source of quality Filipino homegrown footballers. And yet it can be argued that the capital punches well below its weight.
Why is this so? Some think that affluent Manila life brings more distractions to a youngster. Free WiFi, video games, malls, laptops, among other things. Others believe that the poorer provincial kids, born of the hardscrabble fields where a culture of physical play exists, are simply hungrier and want it more. One foreign coach who has observed both worlds of Philippine football says provincial players are more willing to mix it up in 50-50 scraps than kids from the big city.
But for whatever reason, Metro Manila needs to step up its game. And this league could help spur forward a new generation of players who hone their craft in proper leagues, instead of the haphazard, money-spinning one-day festivals so common in the Filipino football landscape. Festivals can encourage a win-at-all-cost mentality, while ongoing leagues, in theory, can better promote continued tactical and technical development. Former Claret coach Bob Salvacion, the tournament director, says that everything will be regulated down to the size of the pitch, unlike festivals with wildly varying pitch dimensions.
The commitment of Mama Sita’s is for three years, so the company understands that building youth football is like marinating your inasal chicken quarters: patience is key. Let’s hope this effort is indeed the recipe for success.
Banner image from NCRFA National Capital Region Football Association on Facebook.