Can top-flight PHL football thrive up north? Ilocos United FC is here to find out

When Australian A-League side Perth Glory played a local United Football League-select squad last July in Manila, there were approximately 500 people in attendance at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

But when the same Perth side took on the Azkals way up north in Quirino Stadium in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, there were reportedly 7,000 people packing the stands and catching the football action.

For Filipino-Australian tour promoter Jarred Kelly, the reception in Vigan was an unforgettable success story, and one that opened his eyes to the fact that football could indeed be brought successfully to the Ilocos region.

So when the Philippine Football Federation invited interested parties to submit expressions of intent for football franchises for the first ever Philippine Football League, Kelly took on the challenge and jumped on the chance.

Kelly, together with Sydney-based English businessman Tony Lazaro, submitted the requirements to the PFF, and Ilocos United Football Club was born.

Together, they had a vision.

“It was not just to build a team, but to take entertainment to the provinces,” Lazaro tells GMA News Online.

“It was to develop a co-partnership with the Ilocos tourism process to develop tourism in the area through football and through awareness.”

For them, the motivations to form a football club was appealing in many ways.

“First and foremost, it’s a blank page. And the appealing thing was, there was no baggage,” Lazaro says. 

“Secondly, it’s the fact that I’ve been to Ilocos and the people and the province, they’re just simple and lovely human beings.

“They work hard and want to raise a family and what we’re gonna try and do is to create some local heroes for them, so they can aspire. For 90 minutes on a weekend, they can go and watch their heroes play. And I believe Ilocos United create heroes for them.”

Lazaro, who hails from Leeds in England, is himself a B licensed coach whose football playing career was cut short by an ACL injury.

He now runs the Rising Stars Sports Management in Sydney, a sports travel management firm that specializes in looking after travel logistics of high performance athletes, which may serve his team in good stead with the long travel to and from Vigan.

Former Perth Glory team manager and Malaysian side Kedah coach Ian Gillan has been tapped as head coach, and has been given three distinct directives by Lazaro.

“We have to survive the league and survive it by finishing in the top half. Our aim is to be in the 3-4-5 position. I think that’s very doable,” says Lazaro.

“(We hope) to develop the community relationship, so I want to have a coaching education program so by the end of this year, we would have established local academies throughout the province.

“And lastly, we need to find a 16-year-old local boy, and see if we can get him in our team which shows our youth development.”

For the last criteria at least, Gillan has delivered, with Ilocos United signing sixteen-year-old Filipino-American Nico Nazal.

On trial with Global and Loyola before signing with Ilocos, the 6’1” Nazal plays in the midfield and is one of the 21 players that the team has signed so far.

Former Loyola Sparks John Kanayama and Baba Sampana, former Ceres defender Val Kama and former Kaya midfielder Dominic del Rosario are among the notable names in their roster, as well as former Azkals U21 and Fil-Belgian Angelo Verheye Marasigan and veteran Anton del Rosario, who will come in as club captain.

“We’ve looked to try and find a balanced squad with some experience, certainly with youth,” explains Lazaro.

“We have no marquee players, we have no prima donnas, we have no superstars, we just have a bunch of players that have come together to form a very, very strong bond.

For some teams who see new boys Ilocos United as an automatic victory, Lazaro has a word of warning.

“The challenge of the other teams is not to beat us skillfully, the challenge for the other teams will be to break our spirit, and I think that that’s a big challenge.”

Cost play a big part in running a club in the PFL, but Ilocos United sees beyond the current balance sheets.

“There’s no money in running a football team. There’s only the ability to engage with the community, with businesses, and with commercial opportunities," says Lazro

“Where we are quite successful is, we have very, very strong commercial opportunities and commercial alliances and that’s what’s helping.

“The potential for football in this country is phenomenal. The commercialization of this sport will put the Philippines on the map.” —JST, GMA News