The Philippine football may not be popular as basketball, not recently when the team AZKALS brought back its popularity. The stunning performance of the national football team of the Philippines during the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup, by defeating the defending champion Vietnam and qualified for the semifinals of the tournament, awakens the consciousness of Filipinos in the of football. The construction of the National Training Center in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo in 2003 thru the efforts of FIFA and the Philippines who seeks to restore the glory of the sport. This development further boosted the revival of football in the country as Filipinos have begun to show more interest in the sport. The nation’s most notable successes happened some time ago (semi-final qualification in the 1991 South East Asian Games). The news that Philippine striker, Alfredo Gonzalez, considered by many as the first ever Filipino professional football player in history and the Philippines’ finest striker since the legendary Paulino Alcantara, had signed a contract for a professional Vietnamese club was the first international transfer to hit the headlines in the country for years.

Under the official FIFA Trigramme the team’s name is abbreviated as PHI; this acronym is used by FIFA, the AFC, and the AFF to identify the team in official competitions. The Philippines AZKALs team is also identified under the International Organization for Standardization country code for the Philippines as PHL. The Azkals has become the new hope of the Philippines to bring about the resurgence of a stronger and more dynamic system in terms of football development. Most of the players of the football team tour the country to bring much needed awareness to the public that the Filipinos can have a very bright future with football, and they can compete at par with other countries in international tournaments.