This refers to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s June 11 editorial titled “The virus of racism.” I applaud the paper’s support for Philippine football by informing the public of its accomplishments, thus helping promote the sport. However, I disagree with that part that says, “the Philippines scored its first victory over Hong Kong since 1958.”
I was part of the fighting Philippine youth team U19 of 1975 and, incidentally, scored the winning goal against Hong Kong. We were eliminated by Hong Kong when it won its last game in the group against lowly Bangladesh. We convincingly beat Bangladesh 2-0 in our first game then lost to powerful Bahrain 0-2 and equally powerful Syria 0-1.
We were the original “azkals” at the time because we had no real football field to train on regularly, and we were not supported by any private corporation or the government. We had no United Football League tournaments, we had no Dan Palami, our salaries were in the range of P500, and rarely were we sent abroad to participate in international tournaments.
I am very proud of the current national team Azkals and never in my dreams imagined I’d see the rise of football in my lifetime.
In fairness to coach Juan Cutillas and the 1975 “Kasibulan” national youth team, we deserve recognition in winning games long before the Azkals of today were born.
—LUDWIG V. FUENTEBELLA,
former national player,
ludwigvf@yahoo.com
The editorial referred only to senior national teams, not to youth teams.—Ed.