Fair Play: Azkals and the casual fan

BOB Arum, that beloved (or most hated) promoter of Manny Pacquiao, said one of the reasons Andre Berto, that promising undefeated welterweight , didn’t get a fight with Manny was he won’t pique the interest of the casual fan.

You see for Arum the casual fan is the game changer, he or she, brings in the millions.


Serious boxing fans are after the matchups, casual fans follow their favorite fighters.

And if you use that formula for Philippine football, we’d hit the milestone in the AFF Suzuki Cup.

I can’t remember the number of times I’ve been asked in the past few weeks if the Azkals (always by name) have another game coming up.

One reporter saw a couple at an Adidas store looking at a jacket with the RP team’s colors and said, “Oy, Azkal.”

In social networking sites, queries for tickets to the Feb. 9 game in Bacolod are at a fever pitch that the Philippine Football Federation had to send an e-mail telling everybody that nothing has been finalized yet.

(By the way, for ticket queries, reservations send an e-mail with your 1.) full name, 2.) e-mail ad, 3.) contact numbers and 4.) number of tickets to Maja Paula T. Año [m_unknew@yahoo.com])

Fan interest in English Premier League’s Fulham FC has also increased and that’s because Neil Etheridge is now their No. 2 keeper.

All of these make Nonong Araneta’s job heaven and hell.

The interest for the sport makes getting backers for his programs easy, but it will also put him under the microscope.

Plus the fact that he has to unravel three years of the reign of he-who-must-not-be-named.

Araneta, for sure, will get a lot of unsolicited advice but for now, I only care about two moves that the new PFF admin will make:

1.) revival of the national tournaments.

2.) bringing the Azkals to the fans.

The first one is for the hardcore football fans and players who want to get the chance to take the measure of the best players in the country, while the second one, are those whose “playing” days are best remembered over a few rounds of drinks.

Back in 2008, the Azkals played the Cebu All-Stars to a sparse crowd at the University of San Carlos field. If they have another friendly at the Aboitiz Sports Field, I think the organizers would probably need the whole North Reclamation Area as a parking lot.

I hope the PFF will consider an Azkal tour this summer, with games against local sides in Manila, Iloilo, Cebu and Mindanao.

Cebu is an obvious choice for me but I think fans in Iloilo, especially Barotac, deserve to see the PHL team in action against their local side.

Barotac is a picture of what the country could be, if the Philippines becomes football-manic, and it has also provided most of the national players.
And of course, should that game push through, “Adto gid ko ya.”

CEBU CITY MARATHON. If you want to know why so many people are running (what’s there to like about punishing yourself?) then better head to the IT Park this Sunday at around 10 a.m.

Don’t bother catching up with the crowd as they fire the starting gun, or catching up with the first finishers or the 5K finishers. What you need to see are the stragglers of the 42K finish.

And here’s what I want you to do. Look at them closely when they near the finish line. Look at their faces, their eyes. Then look at the people cheering them on, willing for them to finish.

Then observe what happens after they do finish.

Then you’d realize running is never about running, then you’d sign up for next year’s CCM.

See you this Sunday.

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