The Philippines may have been eliminated from the semi-finals of the ongoing Mitsubishi Cup, but they have shown their potential. They have shown that they are not the Philippines anymore. It remains to be seen how much they can improve.

At one time, the Philippines was like a home team in ASEAN. No one respected them much. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam were the big teams in the region. The Philippines also had no history or history to speak of when it came to football.

But later, the Philippines started working. They adapted their system to their country's soil and gradually improved, and the results will be seen in future tournaments. It is not a big deal, but it has been a long time coming.

Like other teams in the region, the Philippines has done two main things. They have built academies for local sports, built a grassroots football network, and The first way is to combine education and sports. This way, the Filipinos have been able to make basketball leagues work in their country. The Philippines' fertile soil also helps them. They have a long colonial history, having been under Spanish rule for over 300 years, under the United States for over 37 years, and under Japan for almost 3 years. So they have a kind of Asian-European mix, and they are also a Catholic country in faith. There is a lot of mixed blood among them, and the Filipinos have embraced this.

So, whenever we see people from the Philippines who look like Westerners, they are not adopted, but they are their own citizens. In addition, there are many Filipinos who have emigrated to many countries and have intermarried with those people. Now, the Philippines is able to recruit and invite their own footballers to represent the Philippines. Although their country has been under a bad system, it is now a relatively stable country and the economy is not bad. So it is convenient to plan and develop the sport. When the plan to integrate players from their local academies and local clubs with Filipinos abroad works, their progress is so fast.

This is a side benefit of being able to organize Filipinos to represent their country and having a good plan to organize them. Vietnam and Indonesia are also doing this system. In Vietnam, one of their main players is not even of Vietnamese blood. When it comes to citizenship rules, they have to play.

We must congratulate the Philippines for their progress and we need to draw up a good long-term plan for how we, the Myanmar team, can improve like them. The plan is everything.

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