CEBU finally has its own homegrown professional football club that will see action in the 2021 season of the Philippine Football League (PFL), which is tentatively scheduled to begin in Luzon at the end of September.
While a team once carried Cebu as its home base in the PFL, the Dynamic Herb Cebu Football Club is a team that was formed with Cebuano and Cebu-based players forming the core.
This is a dream come true for Ugur Tasci, the technical director of DH Cebu Football Club, well-known in the Cebu sports community as the man behind Leylam Football Club.
“Actually, this is not new,” Tasci said. “This has been planned for a long time…once we came to Cebu and started Leylam FC, things went on a roll, and everything just fell into place, so there was no reason that we couldn’t be in the PFL. With Leylam FC’s success representing Cebu, this was the next level for us,” he added.
Tasci set up the Leylam FC in 2012, a team that etched its name among Cebu’s highly successful football teams, winning local, national, and even international titles at the amateur level.
Although he has been working on the organization of the DH Cebu Football Club senior men’s team for a couple of months now, Tasci said that he withheld the official announcement until he would be a hundred percent sure that the club will be able to compete in the PFL this season.
“Last Monday, we officially received our provisional license from the PFL. Although, they already gave us approval three weeks ago, there were requirements that we needed to accomplish and I did not want to give false information unless I am 100 percent sure that we will be able to represent Cebu in the PFL,” Tasci explained.
With the provisional license, DH Cebu Football Club will be the seventh club competing in the PFL alongside the Azkals Development Team, Kaya Iloilo, Maharlika Manila, Mendiola 1991, Stallion Laguna, and United City. (RSC from PR)