The 2011 PFF National Men's Club Championship (known as the PFF–Smart Men's Club Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the 1st season of a Filipino association football competition organized by the Philippine Football Federation and sponsored by mobile phone and Internet service provider Smart Communications. It revives a national tournament discontinued since 2006. The last nationwide competition was a National Men's Open Tournament held in Bacolod under the presidency of Juan Miguel Romualdez. Plans were conceived for a similar national competition under Romualdez's successor Jose Mari Martinez but did not push through for a variety of reasons.[1]
Global Teknika emerged the champions on August 22, 2011 after winning against San Beda F.C. on a 3-2 aggregate.[2]
Member Associations (MA) of the Philippine Football Federation organize their own tournaments as part of Provincial Qualifying Rounds in March 2011 to determine their representatives to the group stages. The Cluster Qualifying Rounds was held in a single-round robin competition from April 1–16, 2011. Each MA is only allowed one club as a representative. Clubs from the Visayas region (Cebu, Iloilo, Leyte, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental) and the National Capital Region competed in the Regional Qualifying Rounds while waiting for the winners of the Luzon and Mindanao clusters. Top four teams from the Luzon Cluster Qualifying Round and the top team from each of the Mindanao group clusters will advance to All-Luzon and All-Mindanao Championship. The top two clubs from NCR, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao will advance to the finals which was played in Cagayan de Oro and Bacolod from August 9–13, 2011. The four teams that emerged from the group stage Quarterfinals were Teknika and Pachanga of National Capital Region F.A., San Beda of Football Association of Rizal, and Stallion of Iloilo Football Association. Crossover Semifinals were held on August 16–17, 2011 while the home-and-away finals was held on August 21 and 22, 2011. The Semifinals and the Finals were held at Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Regional qualifying rounds were conducted in single round robin tournament. The single-round robin competition took place from April 1–16 when football associations contested in the Cluster Qualifying Rounds where one club represented each Member Association. Clubs were allowed up to five foreign players but only four can play on the field at any given time.[3]
First and second best teams for National Capital Region Cluster earn a bye for the quarterfinals group stage. Teknika1 and Pachanga qualified for the quarterfinals group stage. At least 10 clubs from Metro Manila took part in the qualifiers.
1Global FC competed under this name due to sponsorship reasons.
^Rick Olivares (March 1, 2011). "National open football tilt back after five-year hiatus". BusinessMirror. Archived from the original on April 6, 2012. Retrieved 2011-10-31. The national men's open football tournament returns after a five-year hiatus via the Smart National Clubs Championship which gets under way this month with the provincial qualifying rounds. "This revives a national tournament that we have not had in a while," Philippine Football Federation (PFF) competitions department head Cyril Dofitas told the BusinessMirror. Bacolod City hosted the last national tournament five years ago.
^"San Beda prevails but Teknika claims PFF-Smart crown". Philippine Star. August 24, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-31. Rizal-Smart San Beda pulled out all stops to beat Teknika FC, 2-0, but fell short of wresting the first PFF-Smart Club championship in front of an animated crowd at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium Monday night.[permanent dead link]
Philippines
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