By Mars G. Alison
Organizers of the BRO Football are finally able to push through with what they planned last year—that is to usher its festival with a cup-type tournament thus this year’s edition will be dubbed as the 3rd BRO Nationals Football Cup and Festival 2014.
The Cup will be held from April 7 to 11 while the Festival will be contested from April 11 to 13. Elimination games for the Cup will be held at the Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC) Football Field in Barangay Punta Princesa, Cebu City while the championship games will be held at the Aboitiz Sports Field in Subangdaku, Mandaue City, where the 3-day Football Festival will also be held.
According to Rodney Orale, whose last name’s initial stands for the O in BRO, last year’s planned cup-type tournament did not push through because of conflict of schedules. The concept would have brought in eight champion football teams from other parts of the country vying for a Men’s Open title.
Acknowledging that it is hard to bring together champion teams because of their different schedules, organizers are opting to open the Cup to any teams and instead of just the Men’s Open, they have added an Under 13 (U13) and an Under 18 (U18) category.
The number of teams for each category is limited to six for now as they want to make sure that each team will only play one game a day, said Keith Buyco, one of the organizers.
At present, five teams have already confirmed for the Men’s Open and four teams each for the U13 and U18.
Vying for the first-ever BRO Nationals Football Cup Men’s Open title are Queen City United, ERCO, Air Lifters FC, UC Nigerian and UC Varsity.
Seeing action in the U18 are Alegria FC, Liloan FC, CVRAA Team, and DBTC while teams for the U13 are FC Inayawan, Ateneo de Cebu, CVRAA Team and DBTC.
Teams for each category will be grouped into two brackets with the top teams advancing to the final round.
Elimination games will be at the DBTC football field from April 7 to 10 while the championship games will be held in the morning of April 11 at the Aboitiz Sports Field. Games in the Festival will follow in the afternoon.
FOOTBALL FESTIVAL
For the Football Festival, on the other hand, organizers have decided to put a limit to the number of teams at 10 for all categories except for the Men’s Open after learning from the problems that have cropped up in the previous two editions.
In last year’s edition, games reached late into the night after most elimination matches ended in draws.
Orale said that what Glen Ramos, also one of the organizers, will do is to give the time set for categories which have not reached the limit of 10 teams to the Men’s Open so it can accommodate as much as 20 teams.
For now a total of 130 teams have confirmed their participation to the 3-day football festival with the DBTC still to decide how many teams it is fielding. Deadline of registration is today.
Out-of-town teams seeing action are coming from Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro and the PAREF Westbridge School in Iloilo.
What used to be an Executive 35 has now become an Executive 38 and a new category has been added—the Executive 45.
Other categories are Mix U7, Mix U8, Mix U9, Mix U10, Mix U11, Mix U12, Boys U13, Boys U14, Boys U15, Girls U15, Boys U16, Boys U18, Girls U18 and Ladies Open.
ENHANCED SECURITY
In the light of the recent brawl that happened, BRO Nationals organizers have assured of a tight security.
Since its first undertaking, only one near-fight incident happened back in the first edition in 2012 between the CVRAA team and a team from Dumaguete. Both teams were immediately disqualified by the organizers.
The tournament’s security will be spearheaded by Delon Richel Ramon B. Urot of the Royal Knights Security Agency.
Urot said 10 blue guards will be fielded and they have also coordinated with the Mandaue City Police.
Buyco said that he believes the incident was isolated and not likely to happen again soon.
“Let us move on from that. Let us not ruin the game because of one incident. We should not under-estimate the Cebuanos capability to understand,” Buyco said.
Orale added that during the coaches meeting, they have reminded the coaches that it is their responsibility to man their players and the parents.
