United Football League Cup

United Football League Cup
Founded	2009
Number of teams	12 (2016)
Current champions	Global (2nd title)
Most successful club(s)	Philippine Air Force; Global (2 titles)
Television broadcasters	AksyonTV; Hyper
Website	UFL Cup
	2016 UFL Cup

The United Football League Cup, commonly known as UFL Cup, was a Filipino association football competition. It was played on a multistage format that culminated in a knockout stage (single elimination). Clubs eligible to compete for the cup were those who played in the United Football League. Likewise, it was open to all clubs in the Philippines that passed the requirements given by the Football Alliance Group, which organized the competition.^[1]^[2] The UFL Cup run from mid-October to mid-December and was moved from May to August starting with the 2015 edition, to make it in line with the calendar of its Southeast Asian neighbors. It provided a chance for all clubs to play each other regardless of their league divisions.

The last holders of the UFL Cup were Global, who defeated Ceres 3–1 in the 2016 final for their second title.

History

The UFL Cup was first held in October 2009 where it was known as UFL–LBC Cup, after the name of LBC Express Inc. as its title sponsor and is sanctioned by the National Capital Region Football Association (NCRFA) and the Philippine Football Federation (PFF).^[3] The purpose was to determine the distribution of clubs over the Divisions 1 and 2 of United Football League in its inaugural season. Clubs were divided into four groups of four, the top 2 finisher of each group after single round-robin elimination qualified for quarterfinals (for division one) and the bottom 2 battles for Plate Competition (for division two). Philippine Air Force was the inaugural cup champions by defeating Philippine Army 2–1.^[4]^[5]

The 2011 UFL Cup season marks the first live television coverage of a match after AKTV (owned and operated by TV5) inked the historical 5-year multi-million peso deal with the UFL.^[6]

Cup Winners And Runners-Up

Club	Champions	Years won	Runners-up	Years lost
Philippine Air Force	2	2009, 2011	1	2010
Global	2	2010, 2016	1	2012
Loyola	1	2013	1	2011
Stallion	1	2012	0
Kaya	1	2015	0
Ceres	0		2	2015, 2016
Philippine Army	0		1	2009
Pachanga Diliman	0		1	2013

Top goal scorers by edition

Year	Scorer	Club	Goals
2009	Yanti Barsales	Philippine Air Force	8
2010	Izzeldin Elhabbib	Global	8
2011	Phil Younghusband	Loyola	25
2012	Phil Younghusband	Loyola	10
2013	Phil Younghusband	Loyola	21
2015	Tishan Hanley	Kaya	15
2016	Robert Lopez Mendy	Kaya	11

Venues

Primary venues used in the 2012 UFL Cup:

Manila	Taguig	Makati
Rizal Memorial Football Stadium	ASCom Football Field	University of Makati Stadium
Capacity: 12,873^[7]	Capacity: 1,000^[8]	Capacity: 4,000^[9]^[10]

Santa Rosa, Laguna	Marikina	Parañaque
NUVALI FieldS #1 & #2, Nuvali	Marikina Sports Complex	Nomads Field
Capacity: N/A	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 3,000^[8]

References

^ Olivares, Rick (August 7, 2011). "UFL Cup to kick off with smashing changes'". Business Mirror. Manila. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
^ de Guzman, Mikhail (July 14, 2011). "Calling All Clubs! The UFL Needs YOU!". Soccer Central Philippines. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
^ "Six matches kick off LBC-UFL Cup". The Philippine Star. October 17, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
^ Schöggl, Hans. "Philippines 2009/10". RSSSF. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
^ "Air Force Rider Crowned Champions of Inaugural UFL-LBC Cup". pfsa.cebufa.org. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
^ Olivares, Rick (September 16, 2011). "AKTV, UFL ink historic five-year deal". interaksyon.com. AKTV. Archived from the original on September 25, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
^ Leyba, Olmin (June 21, 2011). "Rizal can only seat 13,000". The Philippine Star. Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
^ ^a ^b "Stadiums in the Philippines". WorldStadiums.com. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
^ "University of Makati Stadium". sports.opera.com. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
^ "University of Makati Stadium". soccerway.com. Retrieved November 4, 2011.