Overcoming early jitters and some tense moments in the second half, the Filipinos battled upset-conscious Burma to a scoreless draw to enter the semifinals at the Hien Truong Stadium in Nam Dinh, Vietnam Wednesday night.

They closed out their campaign with two draws and a win – a 2-0 upset of defending champion Vietnam – good for five points and second place behind the hosts, who booted out Singapore, 1-0, that same night.

Needing nothing less than a win to advance to the semis, the Vietnamese topped the four-nation-meet with six points while the Singaporeans, who must now rue their 1-all standoff to the Azkals, bowed out of contention with four points. Myanmar had one point from the draw and finished last.

In reaching the semis of the Southeast Asian men’s football championship for the first time in its 14-year history, the Filipino booters, however, could not play in front of their countrymen after the Asean Football Federation (AFF) decided to bar the Philippines from hosting a home match the rest of the series.

“The Philippines will not be able to play a leg of their semi-final or subsequent final at a home venue due to no available stadia in the country meeting the requirements for the AFF Suzuki Cup,” the AFF said in a statement posted on the official Suzuki Cup website.

The decision was done “after careful consideration and talks with the relevant parties,” the AFF said.

“The Philippines Football Federation agrees they will be allowed to choose to play one leg of their semifinal at a neutral venue or both legs in the country of their opposition,” it added.

This proved detrimental to the bid of the nationals, who drew Group A topnotcher and soccer powerhouse Indonesia as their foes in the semifinals that kick off on Dec. 16.

Unless the verdict is changed, they are left with either playing the “home” game in an AFF-member country that is not part of the semis or play both matches in Indonesia.

“We appealed to the AFF earlier through our national team manager Dan Palami who was in Vietnam, to reconsider its decision but our plea fell on deaf ears,” said PFF president Mariano Araneta in a statement.

“We are preparing the Pana-ad Football Stadium in the Bacolod City for this eventuality, and we believe that it would meet the standards set by the AFF,” Araneta said, referring to the facility that was the venue for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games men’s football competitions.

Bong Pedralvez, Journal Online
“Negros Occidental Football Association president Charlie Cojuangco is on top of the situation there, and he has assured us that he is moving heaven and earth for Pana-ad to meet the AFF’s strict venue regulations,” he added.

He disclosed that he has heard unconfirmed reports that it was his ousted predecessor, Jose Mari Martinez, who had informed the AFF of the reputed lack of proper venues to hold the matches.