The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) vows that the three national teams it will field in the 2025 Thailand Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) will vie for a quality campaign as the Philippine women’s national football team, women’s national futsal team, and under-23 men’s national football team (PMNFT U23) were drawn to challenging groups in their respective tournaments in December in Thailand.
The Filipinas, who will embark in a ten-day camp starting on October 20 to sharpen their SEA Games and Asian Cup campaigns, were drawn to the exact same opponents as the 2023 edition alongside reigning gold medalist Vietnam, silver medalist Myanmar, and Malaysia in Group B.
The Filipinas narrowly missed the semifinals in the Phnom Penh Games, having the smallest goal difference in a tie for first place with Vietnam and Myanmar in Group A.
Despite that, the Filipinas, bronze medalist in the 2021 Hanoi Games, was the only team to defeat Vietnam in 2023. The top two teams of the group will enter the semis.
The Filipinas’ tune-up will be on the GoTyme MatchDay exhibition match versus Uzbekistan on October 29, 7 PM, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
PMNT U23, currently in its most successful year to date with a semifinals stint in the ASEAN U23 Championship Mandiri Cup in July and a winning record in the AFC U23 Asian Cup Qualifier in September, will seek to improve its winless campaign from two years ago.
The team is grouped with defending champions Indonesia, previous semifinalist Myanmar, and Singapore in Group C, with the top teams in the three groups and the best second placer advancing to the semis.
FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup (FFWWC) host team Filipina5 will appear in the SEA Games for the first time since 2011, and is in Group A with defending gold medalist Thailand and bronze medalist Malaysia.
Filipina5 have been playing internationally the entire year, qualifying for the first in the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup with seven points in the January qualifiers; an 11th place finish in the Asian Cup in May, including a narrow 0-1 loss to then defending champion Iran; and a ten-day camp in Japan in September where they battled current Asian champs Japan in two friendly games.
Days before the SEA Games, Filipina5 will battle Poland, Argentina, and Morocco in the FFWWC in the Philsports Arena in Pasig starting November 21.
“Our three national teams are coming off a busy and successful 2025, and the coaches and team management have been working hard in preparing them for ASEAN’s crown jewel–the SEA Games,” said PFF President John Anthony Gutierrez.
“Despite our busy schedule with the upcoming FFWWC, GoTyme MatchDay, PMNT’s game against Maldives, and PMNT U17’s Asian Cup qualis, PFF is readying our SEA Games squads to ensure optimal performance come December,” he continued.
The 2025 SEA Games football tournaments will begin on December 3, a week ahead of the opening ceremony, while the futsal tournaments will commence on December 12. Game venues are in Bangkok, Chonburi, and Songkhla.
