The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is the governing body of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. Established as the Philippine Amateur Football Association (PAFA) in 1907, the PFF is one of the oldest national football associations in Asia and is among the founding members of the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly i ...

(AFC). The PAFA reorganized as the Philippine Football Association (PFA), and later as the Philippine Football Federation. Aside from being a member of the AFC, the PFF is also a member of the ASEAN Football Federation. It is recognized as the national sports association (NSA) for the sport of football in the Philippines by

Philippine Olympic Committee The Philippine Olympic Committee Inc. (POC) is the National Olympic Committee of the Philippines. The POC is a private, non-governmental organization composed of and serve as the mother organization of all National Sports Associations (NSAs) i ...

. It organizes the Philippines men's, women's and youth national football teams (as well as national teams for the football variants of

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

and beach soccer). It is also responsible for the organization of domestic football tournaments in the Philippines such as

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Filipino professional football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines' highest level of men's club football, supplanting the United Foo ...

and the

Copa Paulino Alcantara The Copa Paulino Alcantara, also known as the PFL Cup, is an annual football tournament in Philippines, sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation. The cup's first iteration began on September 1, 2018. It replaced the PFF National Men's Clu ...

through the

Liga Futbol Inc. Liga Futbol Inc. is a Filipino corporation based in Pasig, Metro Manila responsible for managing the Philippines Football League (PFL), the top-flight professional national football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varyi ...

, and the

PFF Women's League The PFF Women's League (PFFWL) is the top-flight of women's association football in the Philippines. History To follow up with the PFF Women's Cup which was launched in 2014, the PFF Women's League was launched on November 5, 2016, by the Phili ...

History

Early history

The football body's origins dates back to 1907 when it was established as the Philippine Amateur Football Association (PAFA). It was among the twelve founding Asian football associations of the

. In 1917, the first Spanish and Filipino footballer to play for a European club, Paulino Alcántara Riestra, was selected by the Philippines to represent the country at the

Far Eastern Championship Games The Far Eastern Championship Games (also known as the Far Eastern Championships, Far Eastern Games or Far East Games) was an Asian multi-sport event considered to be a precursor to the Asian Games. History In 1913, Elwood Brown, president of ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. He helped them defeat Japan 15–2, which remains the largest win in Philippine international football history. In 1961, stakeholders of Philippine football officially organized themselves to establish the Philippine Football Association (PFA) which was later reorganized as the Philippine Football Federation in 1982.

Adad era

In October 1996, Rene Adad was installed as PFF president after a snap election which ousted his predecessor, Ricardo Tan. In 2002, the PFF inaugurated its first regional center in Barotac Nuevo,

Iloilo Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...

Martinez era

The PFF under the Presidency of Jose Mari Martinez saw crises which challenged his leadership as well as the national teams. Under Martinez, the PFF also had a new headquarters, the PFF House of Football in

Pasig Pasig, officially the City of Pasig ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people. It is located along t ...

, which was inaugurated by then FIFA President Sepp Blatter and AFC President bin Hammam in 2008. The PFF moved to the building after occupying the PhilSports Complex as its headquarters for decades. In 2009, a crisis affected the Philippine women's national futsal which resulted to the ouster of women's futsal coach Emmanuel Batungbacal and long-time men's national football coach Juan Cutillas. Batungbacal was sacked allegedly leading the futsal team in a tournament without sanction from the PFF. Batungbacal said that he had sanction and he claimed Martinez ignored to make a dialogue with him on the matter. The players who played under Batungbacal resigned from international duty as protests. Martinez said that a lack of suitable coaching license was the reason to Batungbacal's dismissal. On 27 November 2010 at the PFF 7th Ordinary Congress at the PhilSports Complex in

, Martinez was ousted by 25 Presidents out of the 29 present member associations to approve a resolution made by 8 members of the Board of Governors calling for the ousting and replacement of Martinez as PFF president. Martinez was dismissed due to allegedly falsifying public documents and misusing funds. Mariano Araneta was named Interim President.

Araneta era

After serving as Interim President for about a year after Martinez's ouster in 2010, Araneta was elected as president on 26 November 2011 at a PFF congress held at the Astoria Plaza in

. On 14 October 2016 at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in

, the Online PFF Player Registration System was launched following a contract signing between the PFF, MMC Sportz Marketing and RSportz. The initiative by the PFF is among the first in Southeast Asia. The registration system will create a database of Filipino players which will be accessible to organizers of PFF-sanctioned tournaments. The registration system was planned to be online by November 2016. In November 2016, Araneta announced that the PFF will move its headquarters to Carmona,

Cavite Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite ( tl, Lalawigan ng Kabite; Chavacano: ''Provincia de Cavite''), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Located on the southern shores of Manila Bay and southwest ...

in 2017 where an artificial football pitch is due to be finished within the month. The new location will also house a dormitory, a natural grass pitch and corporate offices. The PFF's registration system dubbed "My PFF" was officially launched in June 2017 and will be embedded in PFF's website on 3 July 2017 to be more accessible for registrants. A financial issue with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) was resolved on September 14, 2018, when the PFF remitted amount of unliquidated financial assistance from the government agency. The scope of the financial aid covers the administrations of the PFF from past 1996 to 2010. The PFF was given the right to hold AFC ‘A’ and AFC ‘B’ Diploma Courses in the Philippines by the Asian Football Confederation starting 2019. The federation launched its first esports tournament, the PFF eTrophy which featured the video game title ''

FIFA 21 ''FIFA 21'' is an association football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the '' FIFA series''. It is the 28th installment in the ''FIFA'' series, and was released on 9 October 2020 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Sw ...

'' in 2021. In July 30, 2022, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new PPF headquarters in Carmona took place. In November 2022, the PFF decided to allow the expansion of its regional associations.

Presidents

Association staff

Member associations

There are 36 member associations, three of which are professional football clubs, under the PFF. * Agusan del Sur – Surigao del Sur RFA * Cordillera RFA * Bukidnon FA * Butuan – Agusan Del Norte FA * RFA of Camarines Norte * Camiguin-Misamis Oriental FA * Central Visayas RFA * Golden Davao RFA * North Davao RFA *

Davao R.F.A. The Davao-South Regional Football Association or DRFA is a Philippines, Filipino Association football, football association based in Davao City. It works under the Philippine Football Federation as a provincial football association for Davao City. ...

* Iligan – Lanao Regional Football Association (Iligan-Lanao RFA) * Iloilo FA * Laguna – Cavite RFA * Legazpi City – Albay Federated RFA *

East Visayas R.F.A. The East Visayas Regional Football Association (EVRFA) is the regional football association for the provinces of Eastern Visayas and is a regular member of the Philippine Football Federation. History Futbol Sociedad de Tacloban/Leyte and Leyte FA ...

* Federated F.A. of Masbate * Central Bicol RFA * National Capital Region F.A. * Negros Occidental F.A. * Negros Oriental – Siquijor RFA * Maguindanao-Cotabato City FA * Misamis Occidental – Ozamis FA * Mount Apo RFA * Oriental Mindoro FA * Quezon – Batangas RFA * FA of Rizal * South Cotabato – Sarangani – Gen. Santos City RFA (SOCSARGEN RFA) * Sultan Kudarat RFA * Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands RFA * Central Luzon RFA * Zamboanga del Norte – Dipolog RFA * Pagadian – Zamboanga del Sur – Sibugay RFA * Zamboanga – Basilan – Sulu – Tawi-tawi FA (ZAMBASULTA FA) * Kaya FC-Iloilo * Stallion Laguna FC * United City FC

PFF competitions

National league

National Cups

* PFF National Men's Club Championship (defunct) *

PFF Women's Cup The PFF Women's Cup is the national women's football cup of the Philippines organized by the Philippine Football Federation. History The inaugural edition was launched in 2014 by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and was contested by 10 ...

Youth competitions

PFF National Men's U-23 Championship The PFF National Men's Under-23 Championship (known as the PFF-Suzuki U-23 National Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football tournament in the Philippines organized by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) sponsored Japanese automaker Suzuki ...

(defunct) * PFF National U-22 Amateur Championship (inactive) * PFF U-19 Boys National Football Championship

Esports

*PFF eTrophy

Current title holders

Current national team head coaches

Honours

The PFF was given the AFC President Recognition Award for Grassroots Football in the Developing Category in 2014 and in 2016.

References

External links

Philippines
at FIFA site

at AFC site
AFF webpage

Statutes of the Philippine Football Federation
(in force since December 30, 2013) {{Authority control 1907 establishments in the Philippines

Football Sports organizations established in 1907