Azkals' path ahead through the AFC Challenge Cup

In March, the Philippines' men's national football team—the Azkals— fly to Nepal to compete in the AFC Challenge Cup. After being the only team to qualify from the first and second rounds of qualification, most teams entered the second round automatically, the Azkals have landed in Group B alongside all three previous winners, India, Tajikistan and North Korea.


The Challenge Cup is the premier tournament for emerging Asian countries. The AFC divides the 46 member countries into developed, developing and emerging nations. The top fifteen countries are classed as developed, the next 14 as developing and the remaining 17 as emerging nations though some countries from the developing section and North Korea from the developed section also participate.



To date, then, all three previous winners are from the developed or developing sections in a tournament supposedly made for emerging nations.


This is somewhat contradictory to FIFA’s ideas of the tournament being for the emerging nations and controversy remains as to why North Korea, India and Tajikistan, as well as the Maldives, Turkmenistan and Myanmar as the other examples, can compete in the tournament despite being classed as developing or developed nations. Indeed North Korea has participated in the last two editions of the Challenge Cup and only lost one game in the tournament, winning the trophy in 2010 beating Turkmenistan in the final.


The 2008 final was also played between two non-emerging nations, with India beating Tajikistan 4-1. In 2006, India and Tajikistan were the only non-emerging nations to compete and Tajikistan won the final against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka are therefore the only emerging football nation to have reached the final of the Challenge Cup.


Good experience


The Philippines, though, will still gain good experience from the competition. They may now find themselves in a difficult position— facing three countries in entirely different AFC classifications— but it will help develop the team.
FIFA rankings show that North Korea is 107th in the world, Tajikistan is 140th though India is 158th, one place below the Philippines. This is misleading, though, as the probably more accurate ELO ratings have India ranked 32 places higher, Tajikistan ranked 34 places higher and North Korea a colossal 92 places higher than the Philippines.


ELO ratings last year showed the Philippines were the most improved team in the world, though, and so hope is still high. Yet it would be better to judge the Philippines against the other emerging nations in the AFC and only three out of the eight nations in the final stage are emerging nations: the Philippines, Palestine and hosts Nepal.


The Philippines are already in the top three emerging nations in the AFC, therefore, just for coming this far. Indeed the only developing or developed nation in the tournament not to qualify for the final stage was Myanmar and that was because the Philippines and Palestine knocked them out.


Interest in the Azkals has grown significantly in the past year and though the team are clearly outsiders to qualify from the group they have the potential and ability to upset anyone in the tournament. Manager Dan Palami and Coach Michael Weiss have begun preparing early, believing preparation is key to success.
 Training in the Middle East


Preparation for the Challenge Cup will formally begin as the team fly off to the United Arab Emirates in early February. Initially the team scheduled a friendly with Partizan Belgrade, currently the top team in Serbia who often compete in the UEFA Champions League, however due to visa issues Partizan will now travel to Israel instead.


The Philippines have reportedly scheduled games with Azerbaijan and the Australian U23 team in Dubai before flying off to Qatar to play Al Arabi who finished fourth in Qatar’s league last season and are the second most successful Qatari side.


Interestingly, German and Argentinian legends Stefan Effenburg and Gabriel Batistuta finished their careers with Qatar.


The camp should provide good time for the team to work on its cohesion and organization ahead of the tournament in March. Which players are available will become clearer as time passes, though with an unprecedented number of Azkals joining the UFL from European leagues the team may only be missing a few players.


On the 9th March the Philippines will begin their campaign against 2010 World Cup Qualifiers and reigning Challenge Cup Champions North Korea. They will then play the 2008 champions India on the 11th and the 2006 winners Tajikistan on the 13th March. Semi Finals will be held on the 16th with the final on the 19th March.