FILE–Philippine men’s football team ahead of its match Tajikistan in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. –AFC PHOTO
MANILA–The men’s football team has qualified for the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games in Japan, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) announced Monday.
The men’s football team qualified after India withdrew.
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Reports said the All India Football Federation withdrew its national team because the squad did not meet the Indian government’s strict selection criteria of being ranked within the top eight.
The Philippine women’s squad already earned a berth to the competitions scheduled Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. The country is set to send 443 athletes to the quadrennial games.
The entire delegation, including coaches and officials, could reach 700. Gymnastics is still confirming the qualification of five athletes in artistic events.
Filipino athletes are competing in 38 of the 47 sports programmed by the Aichi-Nagoya organizers, who set quotas mostly for individual and combat sports because of the hosts’ limited capacity to accommodate large delegations.
A record 524 athletes joined the Hiroshima Games (1994) and 391 athletes attended the 2022 edition held in Hangzhou, China.
“The minimum goal is to do better at the Games,” POC president Abraham Tolentino said in a news release, referring to breaking the 4-2-12 gold-silver-bronze tally in Hangzhou.
Football in Aichi-Nagoya features 16 squads in the men’s division and 12 in the women’s side, with the teams allowed to field 18 to 22 players in the under-23 tournament but with a maximum of only three older players each. (PNA)
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