LAGUNA CUP BOOSTS GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL
Sta. Cruz, Laguna, Nov. 5, 1998 - The Second Milo Laguna Cup scheduled Nov. 28-30 at the San Luis Sports Complex in Sta. Cruz, Laguna will be a big boost for the grassroots development of football in the country, said Philippine Football Federation general secretary Chris Monfort yesterday.
"I hope we had ten Gov. Joey Lina who could help us boost football in the country,'' said Monfort during yesterday's PSA forum sponsored by Agfa and Red Bull at the Holiday Inn Manila.
Monfort said Gov. Lina got the idea of having a football festival for young children when he went with his young son to attend the Gothia Cup in Sweden in 1993. "I was with that delegation and Gov. Lina proposed we have something similar in the country. The Laguna Cup is the fulfilment of that dream.''
He thanked the Laguna governor for hosting the three-day event for the second straight year and for making football one of foundation sports of the province's sports development program.
"What the governor is doing in the Laguna Cup complements what we are up to in the PFF, bringing the soccer to the grassroots and drumming up awareness for the sports,'' said Monfort, who was recently appointed deputy chairman to the prestigious Fair Play Committee of the Asian Football Confederation. The Laguna Cup will seven-a-side competitions in under-6, under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16 age group levels in the boys' division and under-14, under-16 and open class in the girls' division.
Each match will last for 20 minutes with 10-minute halves each on the sports complex, which has been laid out to accommodate 20 small football fields.
Aside from football Monfort said there will be other events such as radio-controlled car racing and boating contests in the Laguna Cup to give it a jamboree-like atmosphere.
Invited to the sports festival were Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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