Anton del Rosario’s 7’s Football League goes global with US, Brunei locations

The AIA Philam Life 7’s Football League, a seven-a-side league founded by former Philippine Azkals player Anton del Rosario, is set to launch internationally with partner locations in Brunei and the United States.

7’s Football League Founder and CEO del Rosario announced the development in a virtual press conference held on Friday.

With football in the Philippines still on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 7’s worked instead on moving their international partnerships along to continue the development and growth of the sport and the league.

They announced several locations in California, with Los Angeles, East Bay and the Peninsula, and one in Brunei.

“We were actually supposed to go international just before the pandemic hit in April 2020. Unfortunately, no football was going on. And we had to pause everything,” del Rosario shared.

“I wanted to show that we are looking build football across borders here, but we are looking also to tie it back to the home country here in the Philippines.”

Brunei is expected to be the first to launch, with July set as the target for the openers.

Faezal Murni, the partner heading the league in Brunei, said that there have been no local transmissions of the virus there in one year, which has allowed them to open up for sporting events. They have been cleared to operate football leagues for over a month, and the demand for football is high there at the moment.

Over in California, del Rosario is teaming up with an old friend and teammate, Gabe Cienfuegos, who launched a seven-a-side league two years ago. They will be partnering to make that league part of The 7’s fold. Mike Sharabi, an athletic director and college coach in the Bay Area who will be leading the 7’s location in the Peninsula.

The man looking to set things up for the Los Angeles locations, meanwhile, is another fellow former Philippine national team star in James Younghusband.

“We’re looking at doing big things for the 7’s, and growing seven-a-side football. And we want to make sure everything that we do, it does come back to the country here, in the Philippines. Without the Philippines, none of this would’ve been able to be possible. It all comes back to here,” del Rosario said.

The plan is to eventually have All-Star teams from these partner leagues to compete in tournaments here in the Philippines, once the local league is able to operate.

The league also revealed future plans of expanding to Singapore, India and other parts of the United States. —JMB, GMA News