With support from Hausland
Even as Pampanga has always been known as a bedrock for basketball for so many decades, the sport of soccer has slowly gained popularity in the province for the past several years.
With the backing of Hausland Holdings Inc (HHI), a major property developer in Central Luzon, and the Clark International Football Academy (CIFA), football has taken a foothold in grassroot sports in Pampanga.
HHI president and lawyer Ryan Tan said that following for the sport has increased through the years.
“When we started supporting the football community, we realized that there is the demand, but not only the demand, but really the desire – both of the football community in Pampanga and Clark area,” Tan said.
Tan said that their group has monitored about 21 football associations (in Pampanga) now, with CIFA being the most organized.
HHI is the major sponsor in the ongoing Hausland-CIFA Cup in Clark where 110 teams from all over the Philippines are competing.
At its new development project Hausland Urban Estates (HUE), aside from tennis and pickleball courts, football fields have also been built to support the growing patronage of football. A so-called Pampanga Sunday League will also be held at the HUE grounds.
Basketball in Pampanga has produced the likes of Japeth Aguilar, Jayson Castro, Calvin Abueva. Gil Cortez, the very first PBA rookie of the year in 1976, also hails from the province. Pampanga Vice Governor Dennis Pineda is the current headcoach of Converge FiberXers, a PBA team owned by Kapampangan billionaire Dennis Anthony Uy.
“The sport (of soccer) has run deep in this place. Looking back, it was all different. With internet and with so many young kids being able to watch the World Cup (qualifiers) and SEA Games, a growing number of youth has been inspired (to play) the sport,” CIFA President Nykko DyReyes said.
Both Tan and DyReyes are also working for the reactivation of the Pampanga-Clark Football Association in order to help institutionalize the organization that backstops football in the province.
They expressed hopes that football would have a similar huge following like basketball in Pampanga.