Amid the intense heat during the summer months, the University Athletic Association of the Philippines has decided to move its collegiate men’s and women’s football tournaments to the first semester for Season 87, with matches scheduled to begin this September.
When football returned to the UAAP after the pandemic, the past two seasons offered exciting action, but players noticeably struggled with the hotter temperatures.
In response, the league has taken a proactive approach to address this challenge.
“It’s really because of the extreme heat pagdating ng April and May,” said UAAP Board of Managing Director Representative Mark Molina of tournament-host Far Eastern University.
“In fact, if you’ve noticed during the last couple of years, in the second round, we don’t play 2 p.m. games anymore because of that. But even 4 p.m. games, kawawa yung athletes eh. This was actually planned last year already but because of eligibility purposes, it’s hard to just shift the calendar. So we gave all of the schools the chance to prepare for the shift. Now, it’s finally happened,” he said.
The men’s tournament will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 12 while the women’s tournament will follow a week later.
Meanwhile, the high school boys’ tournament will still be played in the second semester.
The UP Diliman Football Stadium in Quezon City will continue to host all the matches, while the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila is the target venue for the men’s Final Four and the finals of both divisions.
Men’s matches — featuring defending champion University of the Philippines, FEU, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Adamson University, University of the East, and University of Santo Tomas—will be played on Thursdays and Sundays.
