Of Philippine Football and Hooliganism

"Football hooliganism is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans."- Wikipedia

I do not know (yet) how to play football (soccer in the US). I intended to enroll on a PE course of football in where I am studying, but my schedules and finances didn't allow me to. I watch football every time CNN or BBC reports about some team/club plays against this team/club. I am actually bored at the constant wins of Manchester United on the English Premier League, or how national teams played head on during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (which I religiously followed via CNN's extensive coverage). But my journey to be a follower for football skyrocketed when the Philippine national football team a.k.a. the Azkals qualified for the semi-finals in the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup.

The Azkals led me to know that the Philippines, known to be religious in basketball and boxing, can compete in this world-famous sport. This sport led met to know how social media (my current interest for my study) can impact the popularity of this football team which composes of men from local and foreign football clubs, many of which are prominent including Fulham and Chelsea, the same clubs BBC would talk about during EPL. This team led me to know how to study the spread of social media messages in the form of graphs or trees (as we define it in Computer Science) and how they affect the knowledge of its users. These events led me to appreciate the sacrifices, the losses and the victories the Azkals have gone through in a short span of time.

Now they are eyeing to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, I am getting a realization that football in the Philippines is getting a renaissance, a re-thinking. a re-realization. We used to play football and rise in football until America took hold of our nation. We thought of rising in basketball which we are still not capable to rise and shine as of now. We are now seeing a paradigm shift in sport.

Aside from that, these equally good-looking men, some come from foreign lineages like in Britain, Germany, Spain and America, and some come from all walks of life in the Philippines, are true to their intention to play for a nation who looks at football as a sport only for rich kids like golf or sailing. Some of these men sacrificed their careers at their high-profile clubs to represent this third-world country. This is a breakthrough for us, as this is an impossible task.



Now they are facing a Goliath team, Kuwait, they should be prepared for a tough road ahead if ever they would win against them in this second round of the qualifiers. Also, players from prominent clubs are to be prepared for this unexpected thing we call hooliganism.

Hooliganism is violence common in professional sports, especially football. It ranges from slurs and shouts, to fistfights and brawls, to shootouts and stampedes that can claim lives. Hooliganism stems either between rival football clubs or between rival national football teams. Hooliganism has been the cause of football's worst disaster to date, the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989, a disaster which sourced between fans of Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. This disaster claimed 96 lives and injured 766 others, making it the deadliest and the most violent in history.

I do hope disasters like this won't happen when the Philippine team will have an equal share of successes in the sporting scene.

Filipinos are known to be emotional and celebratory people. When someone from our country holds a victory, we rejoice with them. But at a time they lose in the race, we turn our backs and mock them or the other team that made them lose. We tend to have a crab mentality, utak-talangka, that tends to let our own people down. This mentality has destroyed our society for ages.

With the recent victories of the Azkals, they are to expect hooligans to arise against their fans, maybe from other countries, or even from our own race. They are to expect fans to fight against each other either with racial slurs, condemnations, blame-throwing, or worse, fistfights or killings. We must not let this happen. The Philippine government must act to protect the lives of the Azkals and the Azkaleros, the Azkals fanatics. They are to protect the dignity of the team and the sport they are representing. We are to be responsible.



If the Philippine Azkals ever proceed to the World Cup, we are to prepare. We are to be vigilant against those who are to destroy our team, our enthusiasts, and our country.

KENNETH