PFF - Football talent adviser from Germany coming in March 

German football coach Thomas Roy is expected to arrive in Manila by March to begin a two-year stint to help develop the Philippines' grassroots and youth football system, according to Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano 'Nonong' Araneta. BFV.de

“The German youth system is probably the best in the world. They have the youngest national players now. They started 2002, ten years ago, when after the World Cup in Japan they said we have to revamp the whole system, so they started with youth academies, the grassroots again. This guy is one of the architects of the program,” Araneta said.

 

He recalled that two years ago, when the DFB asked the PFF how they could aid football in the Philippines, the PFF said Germany could help develop the new breed of homegrown football players.  

A key component of the grassroots program, dubbed Kasibulan, is the establishment of five to six centers for excellence—football academies—at strategic locations.

 

The PFF plan is to have two of the academies in Mindanao, one in Metro Manila, one in the rest of Luzon and two in the Visayas.

 

Araneta said he asked HRH Prince Abdullah Ibni Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah of the ASEAN Football Federation to look into how the AFF can help in the set-up of the two academies in Mindanao.

 

Prince Abdullah, AFC Vice President and Executive Committee Member, was in Manila, Saturday, to turnover the AFF's donation of $100,000 for the PFF's efforts to assist in calamity recovery and rehabilitation efforts in Compostela Valley, one of the Mindanao provinces hardest-hit by Typhoon Pablo (Bopha).

 

The PFF said the donation, equivalent to roughly P4 million, may be spent to build classrooms and small football fields.

 

Prince Abdullah said the donation was unanimously approved in the AFF Council meeting last December 22 in Bangkok, Thailand to “help communites of Mindanao recover from the devastating effects of Typhoon Bopha.

 

“This display of solidarity by the football federation is an example of how football has the power to effect social change and shows how all the ASEAN countries who are so culturally different and diverse can come together during the time of need to demonstrate the brotherhood that exists in the football community,” Prince Abdullah said.

 

He also said that he is personally concerned about how Bopha affected Mindanao because the families of two of his staff were among those affected.  

Araneta and Prince Abdullah also conversed with Engr. Abenir Ortega Labja, Compostela Valley FA president, to learn directly from him how his neighbors and provincemates are recovering from Pablo's impact.

 

In an interview with GMA News Online, the Compostela FA head said their grassfroot football program has become an calamity “intervention” effort.

 

He said schoolchildren in five hard-hit towns who refused to go back to school because of phobia caused by the typhoon can be motivated to attend classes again.  

Labja said the intervention activity could be implemented in a matter of weeks and will involve about 60 coaches and 500 children per town they will visit. — LBG, GMA News