After 'historic' moment of World Cup draw, Filipinas team manager Jeff Cheng expresses belief in the Filipino athlete

Immense pride, honor, and happiness — these would have been the emotions that were felt by Filipinos near and far as the Philippines’ name was called up in the recently concluded draw for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

When the video montage showing the highlights of the Filipinas were shown, not a few tears of joy were surely shed among the Filipinas faithful.

With the country’s historic qualification to the biggest football tournament in the world, the Philippines are now standing shoulder to shoulder with the other more experienced footballing nations of the world.

Representing the Philippines at the draw held in Auckland, New Zealand were head coach Alen Stajcic, team administrator Belay Fernando, media officer Cedelf Tupas, and team manager Jefferson Cheng.

In particular, the affable team manager’s pride in the country and the team was apparent.

“There will never be another ‘first time that the Philippines made it to the World Cup’ so the moment felt very historic,” said Cheng.

“More than anything, I felt proud of our female athletes and the team that I helped build. A very proud and emotional moment too to see our flag and our country up there among the best footballing nations being recognized in front of millions of viewers around the globe.”

The Filipinas are grouped together with New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland in Group A, which is undoubtedly a very tough group, but ultimately, one that is devoid of any Top 10 team in the world, giving some fans a glimmer of hope for the country to qualify to the knockout stages in our maiden appearance.

But Cheng put it very well: “We would have had a ‘sliver of hope’ no matter which group we ended up in.”

“As long as everyone in the team — players, coaches, staff, management — give their all as we prepare, we leave room for us to get lucky and win a match.”

“It’s sport. Anything can happen, always.”

Cheng turned nostalgic as he reminisced about the early days of his tenure as manager.

“We started this journey to the Women’s World Cup in 2018, when there was barely any financial support for our Philippine Women’s National Football Team,” he recounted.

“Funding for football is scarce and I felt I just wanted to help. And if not me, I’m not sure anyone else would be interested at this level, not just in terms of funding but really putting in the time to manage the team,” Cheng added.

“It is a challenge but one definitely worth facing. I am committed to see this through to the Women’s World Cup.”

Cheng also assured that the support for the Filipinas does not affect the funding of the other football national teams.

“I also want to clarify to the fans of the other national teams that the PWNFT is not diverting PFF resources away from the Azkals or any other team.”

Through it all, the team manager’s unwavering belief in the Filipino athlete is his inspiration in his continued support for the team.

“I guess the main motivation on why I do what I do for our PWNFT is because I have always believed in the Filipino athlete.”

“If given the proper support and opportunities we can compete against the best in the world as proven by our qualification to our first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup and winning the AFF Championships,” he expounded.

“On a grander scale, given the World Cup will be viewed by millions or even billions of people around the world it is a very good opportunity to introduce or let others know about the Philippines and we get to represent our country, as our country’s sporting ambassador, in the best way possible.”

The Philippines will play its first-ever FIFA World Cup match against Switzerland on July 21, 2023 in Dunedin, New Zealand. Tickets are currently available at the FIFA.com website.

—JMB, GMA News