By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

FOLLOWING much controversy, local club football competition rolls on anew with the third season of the Philippines Football League (PFL) which kicks off today at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Supplanting the controversy-marred and short-lived Philippine Premier League (PPL), the PFL is seeing a “rosy” picture for the season despite finding itself starting rather late in the year.

The third season of the league will feature seven teams, one more than last year, composed of defending champions Ceres-Negros FC, Kaya FC-Iloilo, Global Makati FC, Stallion Laguna FC, Mendiola FC 1991, Philippine Air Force FC, and Green Archers United FC.

The PFL, through league commissioner Coco Torre, said the format will be double round robin and will feature home-and-away matches. The tournament will run from May 25 to Nov. 10. Following it will be the Copa Paulino Alcantara.

“We are happy we have seven clubs now and we like to thank them for their cooperation with the PFF for this noble effort of further developing football in the country. And we see a rosy picture for this season,” said Philippine Football Federation (PFF) General Secretary Ed Gastanes at the pre-competition press conference on Friday at the federation’s office in Pasig City.

The PFF said the PFL competition will determine which teams will represent the country in AFC competitions next year.

Games today at the PFL will see Kaya battling Green Archers at 4 p.m. and Ceres taking on Stallion at 7 p.m. The matches will be streamed over PFLtv.ph.

This season the PFL was supposed to be replaced by the PPL but the latter did not pan out as expected across the board, prompting the PFF to pull out of its agreement with the PPL operators and revert to the PFL.

The PPL only had one match date on April 27.

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