Stallion, JP Voltes jump ship to PH Football League

MANILA – Iloilo City’s Stallion Gilligan’s Football Club and JP Voltes Football Club have followed their former United Football League (UFL) rivals in moving to the newly-formed Philippines Football League (PFL). Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano Araneta confirmed the move of Stallion and JP Voltes, saying the teams are deciding what city they will use as their homecourt. “We are still negotiating for Stallion to use Iloilo as their home province. If they do, JP Voltes can use Biñan. If Stallion uses Biñan, probably they (Voltes) can use Iloilo,” Araneta said. “Actually, we already met with the other teams and what we talked about was to form the corporation already so that they can be part of the decision making,” added the PFF official. Stallion and JP Voltes will thus join reigning UFL titlist Global Football Club-Cebu, Ceres Football Club-Davao and Loyola Meralco Sparks Football Club-Taguig in moving to the new football league, which is set to launch in the first quarter of 2017. The PFL is now the country’s premier professional football league and will serve as the qualifying arena for all international competitions. In its first season, the league is eyeing six teams that will play for eight months. While the UFL hold solely its matches at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, the PFL will go down to the cities and provinces. For its inaugural season, the PFL will only have one division – playing in a home-and-away, double round-robin format with the top four teams advancing to the semis and later to the finals. Each team is required to have minimum of 25 players with a maximum of 30, including three goalkeepers, four foreign players (3+1 player from the Asian Football Confederation), and a minimum of three youth players in the roster./PN