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As we enter 2026, we give you some hot Philippine sports-related issues and topics to think about.
The calendar for Philippine sports is pretty loaded for 2026. We’ve got the Asian Games, qualifiers for the FIBA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup, and your usual local leagues and tournaments. The typical Filipino sports fan will surely keep an eye on all these events.
That said, here are four burning questions about the Philippine sports scene in 2026:
Will San Beda finally make the leap to the UAAP?
No official announcement has been made yet, but numerous reliable sources have confirmed to The GAME that San Beda, a longtime pillar of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), has indeed made overtures to the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) about transferring leagues.
These sources have told us that the Red Lions plan to compete already in the coming UAAP Season 89 should their application be approved. As things stand, everything is still in flux. We’ve also been told that as of posting time the UAAP Board of Trustees has not officially contacted San Beda yet about the status of their application.
But if this were to push through (and it likely will), it would bring the current UAAP membership to nine. The Red Lions are the defending men’s basketball champions, so they should be competitive right away. However, lest we forget, there are other events on the UAAP calendar. It would be interesting to see how they form their women’s basketball team, since the NCAA doesn’t have a women’s basketball division. San Beda has also historically been competitive in men’s football, so we can expect them to be competitive in that discipline as well.
A San Beda-to-UAAP move will also revive the Ateneo-San Beda rivalry, which was one of the highlights of the NCAA during its formative years. On the flip side, you also have to wonder what will happen to the NCAA if its glamour team leaves.
What will happen? We’ll find out in the coming weeks.
Will Alex Eala continue her rise up the WTA rankings?
After a highly productive 2025 campaign on the WTA tour, the onus is now on tennis sensation Alex Eala to build on these gains in 2026. As it is, it’s already difficult to climb the rankings, but staying where you are or climbing up further is the real challenge. In the ATP and WTA, players earn points on a rolling, 52-week cumulative system. They need to “defend” their points earned from the previous year by matching or surpassing their performances. This means if a player reached the semifinal of a particular tournament last year but only reaches the last 16 this year, he or she will lose points.
Alex peaked at a career-high 50 late last year when she had close to 1,200 points. She currently stands at 53rd with 1,076 points, meaning she lost a little over 100 points during the last few weeks of the season. The biggest contributor to her point total was her semifinal run in the Miami Open, which netted her 391 points. For her to defend or surpass those points, she needs to at least duplicate her semifinal finish this year.
The tournaments with the most points at stake are the four Grand Slams. Of the four, Alex advanced to the second round in the US Open, which netted her 30 points. By comparison, her first round exit at Wimbledon gave her just 10.
Obviously, there are numerous other WTA tournaments at which to gain points, and we’re sure Alex’s team has plotted out her 2026 campaign to maximize her opportunities. Targeting the top 40 and advancing further in the Slams would seem like ambitious but doable goals for the young Filipino tennis phenom.
How will Team Philippines fare in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games?
At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games (which were actually held in 2023 due to the pandemic), Team Philippines won four gold, two silver and 12 bronze medals. The golds came from pole vaulter EJ Obiena, jiu jitsu’s Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez, and the Gilas Pilipinas men’s basketball team. The silvers were courtesy of wushu’s Arnel Mandal and boxing Eumir Marcial. The bronzes came from a variety of events, including wushu, taekwondo, jiu-jitsu, karate, tennis, weightlifting, cycling and sepak takraw.
At the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, the Philippines also won four golds from weightlifting, skateboard, and golf (two).
The prefecture of Aichi and the city of Nagoya will serve as the venues for the 2026 Asian Games, scheduled for late September this year. Will Team Philippines match or even surpass the four-gold haul of the two previous editions?
Obiena will likely be back to defending his pole vault crown, but the road to a repeat won’t be easy. While he’s still the highest-ranked Asian in the official pole vault rankings, he’s slipped out of the top 10 for the first time in several years. He was also pushed to the limit in last month’s Southeast Asian Games.
Ochoa has retired from national team duties and now devotes her time to teaching the sport. But Ramirez is coming off a very fruitful 2025 where she won gold at the Asian Jiu-jitsu Championships and the Jiu-Jitsu International Federation World Championships and should be considered a favorite.
Gilas, of course, will be looking to give the Philippines its first back-to-back Asian Games golds in men’s basketball since the country won four straight up to 1962.
But there are other athletes and teams that could bring home the gold. The boxers are always in the mix, as are the other combat sports athletes. Carlos Yulo chose not to compete in Hangzhou due to a scheduling conflict. But if he competes this time around, fresh off a gold and a bronze at the 2025 World Championships, he would be a heavy favorite. Alex Eala, should she choose to try and surpass her bronze in Hangzhou, would be another potential source of gold.
Will the Filipinas qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup?
Has it already been close to three years since the Philippine women’s national football team competed in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand?
Now, the Filipinas are attempting to return to the World Cup stage, and the road looks bumpy. The AFC Women’s Asian Cup, to be held in March in Australia, will serve as the qualifier for the WWC. The Philippines, ranked 41st in the world, is in Group A with hosts Australia (ranked 15th), South Korea (ranked 21st) and Iran (ranked 68th). The top two teams from each of the three groups and the two best third-placed teams will advance to the quarterfinals. The top six will earn tickets to the WWC.
If the Filipinas finish third in their group, they have to at least limit the number of goals scored against them to increase their chances of making it to the quarters. If they do get through, they have to hope for favorable match-ups in the knockout stages.
The Philippines is currently ranked seventh in the latest AFC women’s rankings, just a notch below Chinese-Taipei, so a top six finish certainly is within reach. Their recent historic gold medal run in the 2025 Bangkok SEA Games, where they beat world no. 36 Vietnam twice, should also provide added inspiration and momentum. The big question is if ace striker Sarina Bolden will be able to rejoin the team after her ACL injury suffered in April last year.
Banner images from POC Media Pool.