United City FC reveals reason regarding Copa Alcantara absence

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

United City Football Club, formerly known as the Ceres-Negros FC, finally spoke about why they pulled out of the 2021 Copa Paulino Alcantara Cup.

Many football fans were surprised why the defending Philippines Football League (PFL) champions weren’t able to participate in the ongoing Copa Alcantara competition.

United City FC then released their statement and cleared their side amid a certain issue involving Ceres-Negros.

“When United City FC took over the licenses from Ceres-Negros to rescue the club in July 2020, the parties signed an agreement outlining particular obligations to be fulfilled by Ceres-Negros. However, some have unfortunately not been met by the former club, as of this writing,” stated in the press release.

Previously, the football franchise through Bacolodnon tycoon Leo Rey Yanson sold Ceres-Negros to Eric M. Gottschalk’s Dubai-based MMC Sportz Asia, thus the changing of the name to United City.

According to the press release, the United City franchise is being dragged into legal disputes brought by Ceres, a reason why they have to thoroughly look into this matter because their stakeholders are also getting affected.

“Since the legal actions were taken against the former Club Ceres-Negros have been registered with FIFA, it has now affected the United City FC Club license application for AFC competitions, which as of writing, is ‘provisional,” added the statement.

Currently, United City is fixing the issue together with their lawyer and is also working hand-in-hand with the PFL and the Philippine Football Federation (PFF).

“We apologize to our fans that the ongoing Copa is, unfortunately, being played without us. However, we assure you that UCFC will be stronger and better in 2022 when we aim to defend our PFL title and to go a step further in AFC competitions,” closed the statement.