The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) has set its eyes on the 2024 Palarong Pambansa futsal tournament last July 11 to 15 in Cebu, as Rizal Memorial Colleges High School of Davao and Barili Elementary School of Cebu topped the girls’ high school and elementary school categories, respectively.
Rizal routed Pontevedra National High School of Negros Occidental, 11-2, in the high school final, while Bulua National High School of Cagayan de Oro snagged the bronze medal.
Rizal’s victory is the first futsal crown for Davao Region and Mindanao.
Barili topped the four-school, all-Cebu table of the inaugural elementary girls’ exhibition event followed by Zapatera Elementary School of Cebu City, Vicenta A. Manreal Elementary School of Talisay, and Liloan Elementary School.
PFF provided technical support of the Palaro futsal event while PSC provided the Taraflex playing surface which was shipped by PFF from Manila to Cebu.
“We are proud of the girls who participated in the Palarong Pambansa futsal tournaments. Futsal has been a staple of Palaro events since 2016 and we hail host city Cebu for its outstanding hosting,” said PFF President John Anthony Gutierrez.
Gutierrez emphasized that the eight year-long inclusion of futsal in the Palarong Pambansa is a boost in PFF’s national futsal program as the Philippines will not only host, but participate in the inaugural Futsal Women’s World Cup.
PFF last month held an ocular in Cebu City as it is eyed as a potential World Cup host city.
“Cebu’s hosting of Palaro futsal is a testament of the city’s commitment in embracing the sport. We hope this can be done in other Philippines localities,” Gutierrez said.
Central Visayas won last year’s Palaro futsal represented by Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu. The region previously won in 2018 while Western Visayas had two crowns in 2019 and 2017.
The National Capital Region won the inaugural futsal event in 2016 while Calabarzon won the only high school boys tournament in 2019.
“The Department of Education’s (DepEd) eight-year build-up of girls’ futsal as a regular Palaro event helps in growing the trend of women’s futsal in the Philippines and DepEd and the regional athletic association’s (RAA) efforts have been vital in boosting the Philippines’ Futsal Women’s World Cup hosting bid,” Gutierrez said.
Aside from the Philippines’ upcoming Futsal Women’s World Cup sting, Gutierrez hopes for more international competitions for the national futsal teams in the future.
“There’s an opportunity for us to join the Youth Olympics where we can have our younger girls aspire to be part of the national team so we hope that the futsal elementary division be a regular, national event in the Palarong Pambansa next year. PFF is more than willing to help DepEd and the RFAs to make that happen,” Gutierrez concluded.
