THE local club football scene has been rebooted with the launch of a new top-tier league — the Philippine Premier League (PPL).
Taking over from the Philippines Football League (PFL), which was up from 2017 to 2018, the PPL looks to build on the gains of its predecessor and taking them to another plane to further cultivate the sport in the country.
Leading the rebranded league is Bernie Sumayao, the PPL commissioner, who bared that his group is bent on pushing for the sustainablity of interest in football in the country and ensuring the success of the league.
He went on to say that part of their end goals for the PPL is to raise the profile of Philippine football beyond local shores as well.
“With the PPL we want to raise the profile of football not only here but also outside of it,” shared Mr. Sumayao during the PPL’s launch at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati on Wednesday.
“We believe this is a new dawn for Philippine football,” he added.
The PPL said for the first year of the league it is targeting an eight-team field.
Eleven clubs have already expressed interest in joining, the PPL said, with evaluation of applications expected to be finished by Feb. 15, in time for the opening tentatively set for end of March.
The league will have a triple round robin format in accordance with stipulations by the Asian Football Confederation.
Games will be played in various venues in Metro Manila with provincial matches planned to be set along the way.
Mr. Sumayao said one of the things they are high on doing is increasing fan engagement and activation, which he said wad something that was conspicuously missing with the PFL during its short run.
They have plans to tap various media platforms to convey the league to more people.
For starters, the PPL has inked a pact with 5 Plus to broadcast one live game every week — Saturdays from 7 to 9 p.m. — to ensure continued exposure of the league apart from content found on its social media accounts.
Mr. Sumayao said doing a reboot is no easy task but initial response has been positive, which is an encouragement for their group, even as he underscored the need for fans to go out and support the league to ensure success.
“We are not doing this (launch) if the response was not great. But important for us are the fans. They have to go out and support the league, not only on social media,” Mr. Sumayao said.
“You (fans) do your part and we will do our part,” he added. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
