With the success of last year's season of the Philippines Football League by Qatar Airways, 6 football clubs battle it out for the league title and qualifications for the AFC Cup. United City FC was the victor of the tournament but lost to their final match against Kaya FC-Iloilo, and with the upcoming season of this year's Copa Paulino Alcantara 3 football clubs are about to enter the tournament. 2 veteran clubs who previously played for the United Football League, and another guest team which they'll represent the Business Process Outsourcing industry.
9 football clubs will participate in the Copa Paulino Alcantara, it will kick-off this April or May before the FIFA transfer window in June, and the setting would be the same from last year's event. With the league's attention from potential sponsors & team owners, who are the new football clubs to enter this year's Copa?
Loyola FC and Laos FC are currently fixing their papers for their entry to our local professional league. Both clubs are veterans of our previous football league and their last match was 5 years ago where Meralco Sparks won 11 goals to 1. Laos FC decided not to participate in the national football league in 2017.
Laos FC (also known as Leyte Association of Organized Sports) was founded in 2009 when Dan Palami who is the team manager of the Philippine Azkals and Global FC chose to form a separate team that carries the LAOS name as they share the same history with Global. The club had their major success in the UFL '15 season as they won the UFL Division 2 Championship with an unbeaten record, and got promoted to the 1st Division as they go head-to-head with other football clubs of the UFL Division 1. When the UFL was disbanded, Laos FC, Green Archers United FC, Manila Tala FC, Kaya Elite FC, also Loyola FC played with the Weekend Football League.
Aside from the Azkals Development Team, the new guest team invited for this year's tournament was Telus International Philippines FC. Yes, Telus is a Business Process Outsourcing company based in the Philippines, and currently playing for the Corporate Football League where Banking, Financial Services, Travel, Advertising & Media, and even the BPO companies compete for this amateur league. I wasn't able to find much of the club's history, and this will be their 1st time entering the professional league level and hoping for the best.
With the national vaccination program starting this month, there are high hopes that the country can finally recover from this pandemic. The tournament is planning to return its home and away format, but they're still following with the centralized format, no one would know there would be any changes, and hopefully, we can now watch inside the stadium but safety measures must be followed.
Sources:
https://tiebreakertimes.com.ph/tbt/loyola-laos-look-to-make-return-with-pfl/201460
