After more than a decade of wishing by thousands of Filipino expatriates in the Kingdom for the visit of PBA Legends, the dream will finally come true Oct. 24 to Nov. 2 with a series of games in the cities of Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh.
The PBA Legends games are to coincide with the Haj holidays, which are expected to fall on Oct. 24-29.
According to a press release by the local organizers, the project is supported by Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, president of General Presidency of Youth Welfare.
The goodwill games are also aimed at strengthening the ties between the host country and the Philippines. Select local teams from Saudi Arabia will participate in what is being touted as the biggest basketball event organized by Coordinations Est. Company in cooperation with various regional Filipino basketball organizations as follows: the Pilipino Basketball Association (PBA) in Dammam, Overseas Filipino Basketball League (OFBL) in Jeddah, and the Philippine Arabia Basketball Association (PABA) in Riyadh. The PBA Legends Foundation is a happy participant in the program.
The program is under the overall leadership of Fahad Ibrahim Al Sekaity and Abdul Aziz Virgilio “Jawo” Dizon, a veteran basketball organizer in the Kingdom who said this event has been 10 years in the making.
Abe King, PBA Legends USA Foundation chair and president, and another US-based player Ponky Alolor are to join their counterparts from the Philippines in the 12-man Legends lineup to do a tour of Saudi Arabia. To fly in from the Philippines are Marlou Aquino, EJ Joseph Fiehl, Bonnel Balingit, Rodney Santos, Bong Hawkins, Gherome Ejercito, Gerald Esplana, Vince Hizon, Bal David and Noli Locsin. Also with the delegation is Ruffy Ignacio, PBA Legends USA Foundation secretary-general.
The program is guided by the principles of “Bridging people from all walks of life through the medium of basketball” and “One goal, one dream, one spirit, one mission, and one Vision, all for the love of sports.”
Unknown to many in the home country Philippines and abroad, but very popular in Saudi Arabia, the Filipino basketball communities in Saudi Arabia are a well-knit group of dedicated and hardworking kababayans who advance the twin cause of basketball and fellowship in that part of the world. In the last 15 years, this united group has been conducting basketball tournaments, whole-year round in various regions in Saudi Arabia, ala PBA in the Philippines.
The leaders of these organizations who work with dedication and diligence on various regional tournaments, on top of practicing their respective professions, are as follows: Al Sekaity, Coordinations Est. Company chairman; Dizon, Coordinations Est. Company CEO & PBA commissioner; PABA Commissioner Mohd. Khamis, project manager, western region, Jeddah; Mohd. Ibrahim, executive director Time-out Sports Academy, Jeddah; Boy Teves OFBL chairman, Jeddah; Rocky Gil, OFBL commissioner; Lito dela Cruz, OFBL technical director and Nasser Punponan, PABA regional director in Riyadh.
In the near future, the aforementioned organizations plan to provide scholarship grants to needy Filipino students in the Philippines, and to conduct medical-dental missions in coordination with the PBA Legends Foundation.
PBA Legends to visit Kingdom for goodwill games
PBA Legends to visit Kingdom for goodwill games
San Siro prepares for last dance with Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony
- Friday’s ceremony will likely be the last major international sporting event hosted at a stadium which is so beloved it is nicknamed ‘Football’s La Scala’ after Milan’s historic opera house
- The iconic old ground is on course to be replaced by a shiny new arena after a century of hosting Inter Milan and AC Milan matches
MILAN: One of the world’s most famous stadiums is set for a last hurrah on the international stage with the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics at the San Siro on Friday.
Long considered one of the temples of football, the San Siro will introduce the Milan-Cortina Games to the world with a ceremony featuring an athletes’ parade held in all four “clusters” of a sprawling Olympics being held across a vast area of northern Italy.
But the iconic old ground is on course to be replaced by a shiny new arena after a century of hosting Inter Milan and AC Milan matches.
In September the local government of Italy’s economic capital approved a 197-million-euro ($229.5 million) sale of just over 28 hectares (70 acres) of public land, on which the San Siro sits, to the two clubs.
Inter and AC Milan will abandon the iconic ground once their new stadium is built, the idea being that it be finished in time to host matches at the 2032 European Championship to be jointly held in Italy and Turkiye.
The two Milan clubs — European football royalty now both owned by American investment funds — — are planning the construction of a modern 71,500-capacity stadium to the immediate west of the current San Siro, on an area currently occupied by matchday car parking and a local park.
Once the new ground is constructed, San Siro will be almost entirely demolished to make way for new parkland, office space and entertainment facilities.
The current stadium no longer meets European football governing body UEFA’s requirements to host major events and was denied the 2027 Champions League final.
That means Friday’s ceremony will likely be the last major international sporting event hosted at a stadium which is so beloved it is nicknamed “Football’s La Scala” after Milan’s historic opera house.
Milanese icon
The San Siro was inaugurated with a derby match between Inter and AC Milan on September 19, 1926 and over the years it has hosted World Cup and European Championship matches, as well as dozens of fixtures for the Italian national team.
Initially owned by AC Milan before being bought by the city in the 1930s, with Inter making it their home in 1947, the San Siro has been renovated several times, with the last major works being carried out ahead of the 1990 World Cup.
That restyling, which added a third tier to the stadium, gave the San Siro the futuristic look — with spiralling external columns and a striking red roof — that still catches the eye over three decades later.
The San Siro also doubles up as one of Italy’s premier concert venues, where some of the world’s biggest pop music stars have strutted their stuff since reggae icon Bob Marley became the first in 1980.
From the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, right up to contemporary superstars Beyonce and Taylor Swift, the stadium attracts massive crowds for summertime performances from international hit machines and local favorites like Grammy-winning rock band Maneskin.
The new stadium should it be built as scheduled by the end of 2030, but with a final project a long way from being approved by the city, nothing is certain, especially with local elections coming next year.
Politicians on the local and national stage have repeatedly expressed anger at the idea of knocking down a symbol of Milan and in 2023 succeeded in torpedoing a previous attempt by the clubs to build a new stadium on the same site.
