From football’s whipping boys to regional heavyweights

SINGAPORE — What a difference a decade makes.

In September 2006, the Philippines national football team fell to their lowest-ever Fifa ranking of 195th out of 207 nations.

Fast forward to the present, and the Azkals, as the team are known, will be entering the AFF Suzuki Cup, which begins tomorrow, as world No 124, the highest-ranked team in South-east Asia, ahead of even regional powerhouses Vietnam (136) and Thailand (146).

In fact, the Azkals were ranked even higher back in May, when they were No 115, following notable wins over North Korea (3-2) and Bahrain (2-1) in World Cup qualifying.

Although the rankings are not an accurate determination of a football team’s strength — after all, Thailand were the only South-east Asian side to make it to the final round of Asia’s 2018 World Cup qualifying stages — the Philippines’ climb nonetheless serves to illustrate their remarkable progress over the past decade.

A SAVIOUR

It wasn’t like this back in the 1990s though.

Football development in the Philippines had stagnated then and the team struggled to produce decent footballers, a trend which continued into the early 2000s. Indeed, the Philippines were so weak then that they suffered one of their heaviest defeats ever at the 2002 Tiger Cup (the predecessor to the Suzuki Cup) when they were hammered 13-1 by Indonesia. They also failed to qualify for the 2008 edition, as well as the AFC Challenge Cup that year.

Things, however, took a turn for the better when billionaire businessman Dan Palami got involved with the national set-up in 2009. He had helped to fund the Under-19s’ trip to a tournament in China, and was subsequently approached by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) to handle the senior side as team manager.

Palami, the chief executive officer of Autre Porte Global, a railway engineering company, could not be reached for comment, but he said in a ABS-CBN News interview in 2011: “Nobody wanted the job ... nobody wanted to handle a team that was losing internationally so it was a losing proposition for somebody then.”

With sponsors hard to find and football a poor cousin to basketball, Palami, who was given free rein over the Philippines team, started to bankroll the team from his own pocket.

In a 2014 interview with football magazine The Blizzard, Palami estimated he had spent “around US$2 million (S$2.83 million)”.

FOREIGN-BORN STEEL

To achieve his vision of helping the Philippines break into the top 100 of the Fifa rankings, Palami set about building the core of the team. Local-based players like winger Emelio Caligdong, defenders Alexander Borromeo and Anton del Rosario, and strikers Ian Araneta and Yanti Bersales were recruited.

He also set about finding foreign-based players with Filipino lineage and convincing them to represent the Philippines on the international stage. Early examples include defenders Rob Gier (England) and Gino Pavone (US), and midfielders Jason de Jong (the Netherlands) and Manuel Ott (Germany).

The most famous names associated with this strategy are the England-born Younghusband brothers, Phil, a striker, and James, who plays in midfield.

The pair were Chelsea academy trainees when someone discovered their Filipino roots in the popular Football Manager computer game in 2005 and informed the PFF. The siblings were subsequently invited to play for the U-23s before moving up to the senior side a year later.

Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, who made his Philippines debut in 2008 and now plays for League One’s Walsall, is another early example.

Palami, a hands-on boss who attended training sessions and forged close links with the players, did not have to wait long to see his hard work pay off. In 2010, the Philippines upset defending champions Vietnam in the group stage en route to making their first-ever Suzuki Cup semi-finals.

This boosted the popularity of football back home. More significantly, it resulted in more players with Filipino lineage contacting the PFF to enquire about representing the country.

Players like defender Jeffrey Christiaens, and midfielders Stephan Schrock, Kevin Ingreso and Martin Steuble have since added depth and quality to the current team. For example, Schrock has played in the German top flight with Hoffenheim, and Eintracht Frankfurt.

HUNGER TO LIFT FOOTBALL

These players are often cited as the main reason for the Philippines’ improvement, though other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore also have naturalised or foreign-based players — albeit far fewer.

But the role of local-born players like Caligdong is as crucial, according to Cedelf Tupas, a football journalist at the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“The homegrown players are really the ones who have kept the team together and helped make the foreigners understand what they were fighting for, which is recognition for the sport back home,” he told TODAY. “The team were hungry for support, recognition and were bent on giving the country pride in the sport that was in the doldrums.

“More matches and exposure overseas have (since) led to improvement and it’s down to resources and the leadership of Palami and the PFF.”

The formation of the semi-professional United Football League (UFL) in 2009, the de facto top-tier league in the country, also allowed foreign-based players to return home and play for clubs. This makes it easier for them to train with and play for the national team. Of the 22 who played in the team’s last friendly against Kyrgyzstan (which the Philippines won 1-0), 17 are with UFL clubs.

In another sign of improvement, Ceres La Salle and Kaya FC became the first Filipino clubs to reach the AFC Cup round of 16 earlier this year.

“The improvement of football in the Philippines is on a good way,” Ott, who plays for Ceres, told TODAY.

“I mean, every one of our squad has a Filipino mother or father, so we are basically not foreigners and 90 per cent of the players are playing domestically.”

HIGHER EXPECTATIONS

Good coaches like Simon McMenemy, Michael Weiss and now Thomas Dooley also polished the team tactically and helped them achieve breakthroughs. The Philippines now have three semi-final Suzuki Cup finishes under their belt, while they were one heartbreaking step away from qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup finals in 2014, losing to Palestine in the AFC Challenge Cup final for the berth.

The future looks bright, too.

Promising talents like defenders Amani Aguinaldo and Daisuke Seto are emerging, while the likes of Ott, 24, and 28-year-old striker Javier Patino are in their prime. The establishment of the Philippines Football League — the country’s first-ever professional competition — next year will also be a boost.

As co-hosts of this coming Suzuki Cup, the Azkals are expected to challenge strongly this time — a far cry from tournaments of years past. As Tupas said, not reaching the final will be a “disappointment”.

“They are under pressure to win this time unlike the last three editions because they have better individual players,” he said.

“What worries me, though, is the lack of big characters in the squad, who can push the team when their backs are against the wall. I think they have a good chance with Thailand in the same group.”

Ott agreed: “The team is almost the same squad that played the World Cup qualifiers so we know one another which is a good advantage.

“With home advantage, we are confident of having a successful Suzuki Cup campaign.”

THE PHILIPPINES’ RESULTS IN 2016:

November - bt Kyrgyzstan 1-0 (Friendly)

October - lost 1-3 to North Korea (Friendly); lost 1-3 to Bahrain (Friendly)

September - bt Kyrgyzstan 2-1 (Friendly)

March - bt North Korea 3-2 (World Cup qualifier); lost 0-1 to Uzbekistan (World Cup qualifier)