Philippines hosts successful LALIGA Youth Tournament

c/o LALIGA Youth Tournament

Grassroots football received an official boost this past weekend, with the conclusion of the inaugural LALIGA Youth Tournament at the New Clark City Athletics Stadium in Capas, Tarlac.

In three days, teams based from all over the country and even one from Malaysia, flocked to the venue to play football, with matches taking place from the Under-8 to the Under-16 divisions.

According to Epic Management president Ed Pasion, it was a long time coming for this tournament to come to the Philippines.

He shares , "Four years ago, La Liga Youth Tournament started in Malaysia, so all the tournaments before all international La Liga Youth Tournaments were always held in Malaysia."

"We've always been flying there as a regular (Philippine) club. So three years, second year, I just threw the idea to the organizer. Why don't you do it in the Philippines? Their reaction was, Why Philippines? Is there football in (the) Philippines? That was the reaction."

"So they were looking as football as a basketball nation, or as a boxing nation because of Manny Pacquiao. So I told them, come visit the Philippines and see what we have... I started showing them pictures of our stadium, started showing them our facilities and of our Azkals, our football team that's doing very well at that time."

"So after four years after, they finally agreed, to bring La Liga Youth Tournament to the Philippines."

Pasion notes, "... we have eighty teams, 1,700 players all coming here to join in and show and prove that the Philippines is here to play football."

Epic Management sought the assistance of Rely San Agustin and his RSA1 Group in getting this competition up and running, with the latter having experience organizing these kinds of competitions.

For the Spanish top-flight's end, Regional Assistant Marketing Manager for Southeast Asia Santi Elizalde says, "One of LALIGA's main goals is really to grow the sport that we all love around the world. And we do that via our delegates, our international program. We have 45 delegates in 45 different countries around the world. So we really get that localizations as much as possible.

The way we believe we can grow the game around the world, especially this region, is through the kids, the youth. And from there, ... we thought, what would be the way to do that? Yes, we can have a little camps, yes, we can have them fly to Europe, which is a great experience. But what's better than actually creating a tournament that happens every year that people are excited about."

The grandson of the former Philippine representative to the International Olympic Committee Frank Elizalde, he adds, "... So we're trying to get every country in the region to have something like this. And then from there, it can take off. We can have a regional Youth Tournament to really get the champion of Southeast Asia. But that's all in the works still. But essentially we want to have the La Liga brand in synonymous with grassroots football in the part of the world."

With that in mind, Pasion believes that having these kind of tournaments are essential in seeking to grow the game both here and in the region. He notes, "LALIGA Youth Tournament aims to become the benchmark tournament in grassroots football in the region through its multiple local editions and to boost football talent throughout the Southeast Asian region. There are also plans to hold a larger tournament at regional level."

Elizalde also values a successful end goal for this competition, highlighting the dream getting "a graduate from La Liga Youth Tournament, playing for LALIGA."

Reaching that goal is already making inroads. Pasion notes the presence of Sylar Alcantara, who is based in Barcelona as part of Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu's Under-13 team. The former Ateneo student returned to the country to play with his teammates at CF Arena in the Under-12 level, where they finished in the podium.