LAST year, like most of everyone in Cebu football community, I’ve heard that there were talks of reviving the Aboitiz Football Cup, Cebu’s biggest football tournament.
When sports events came back post-pandemic in Cebu City, every one assumed that the Aboitiz Football Cup would be next but we were all caught by surprise when the announced 22nd edition of the tournament was staged in faraway Batangas.
Still, we were hopeful. Perhaps next year would be our turn.
But a year later, things were no different, Cebu’s beloved tournament has seemingly turned its back on the community. The common sentiment was, it seems they have forgotten about us.
So, in a fit of inspiration, I wrote in my now discontinued column, “The Aboitiz Cup is dead, time for Cebu to move on.”
“It’s useless waiting for the Aboitiz Cup to return to Cebu, given how its focus is now Luzon. The Aboitiz Cup, the tournament that changed Cebu football, is dead.”
The article reached the right people and being accused of having abandoned Cebu football, and indirectly, Cebu itself, was something the Aboitiz doesn’t want associated with its family.
“You stirred something,” I was told, numerous times.
And, more recently, I learned that the sentiment of having felt forgotten or left out when the Aboitiz Group transferred to Manila was a sentiment not limited to football.
The column sort of prodded a soul-searching in the company as it again touched based with its roots.
And months later, the Aboitiz Football Cup’s return to Cebu was formally launched.
But this time, its departure from Cebu will benefit Cebu and Philippine football. Having seen how organizing a football tournament has benefitted a community, the Aboitiz Football Cup will still have its Luzon version–albeit the festival type–and one in Mindanao.
The champions in the Luzon and Mindanao legs will have a chance to play an exhibition match in Cebu, a move that I hope will evolve into a future Champions League format. You see, the Aboitiz Football Cup’s willingness to evolve should be a lesson to other tournaments in the country, you too must be willing to adapt.
The Aboitiz Cup’s return to Cebu is a game changer for the national community-based football competitions, a homecoming that not only benefits the Cebu football community but those in Luzon and Mindanao also and I’m glad to have played a small role.
Welcome back, Aboitiz Football Cup!