Thursday, December 04, 2008 Villalva: Is there hope for RP football? By Henry C. Villalva Offside
WHEN one looks at the history of the country's participation in the biennial Southeast Asian Games (SEAG), it seems there is no ray of hope at all for Philippine football, especially when one takes into account the performance of the RP team compared with our football neighbors like Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and powerhouse Thailand.
As we look forward to next year's SEAG in Laos, there is little hope that the Philippines will fare well in men's football competition, judging from our performance in the recent Southeast Asian Championship qualifiers where we didn't even make it to the next level.
Yet, the leadership of the governing Philippine Football Federation (PFF) seems to be inclined to and satisfied with tapping the services of Fil-foreign players from the US and Europe obviously out of convenience since with the presence of Fil-foreign players, you no longer need to try out for RP-based players to compose the RP squad. You just accommodate a couple of Fil-foreigners, tap the services of a coach, and add a hodgepodge of selected standouts from the usual provincial sources, and presto, you have an assembly of players dressed up as the national team.
Unlike in the past when provincial associations were asked to nominate players to the RP team. Then the nominees are assembled in Manila to train in preparation for a major international event. Well, maybe the system is no longer lucrative as far as the PFF promoters are concerned.
Besides, we heard the PFF is currently engrossed with its squabble against the NCRFA, it seems it has forgotten its obligation to attend to the needs of its constituents in the other football regions of the country. That's why apparently there's no football movement in terms of competitions and training in the grassroots. It's back to the "kanya-kanya" kind of mentality that will benefit nobody. Even if there's something going on in Manila we can't feel it in the provinces. And it's certainly unfair since most of the talents in the national teams come from the provinces and the PFF is morally obligated to give something to the provinces in this regard.
Of course, another stumbling block to football development is when the PFF is at odds with local associations, as is the case between the PFF and the leadership of the Negros Occidental Football Association (NOFA). Naturally, when the NSA and the local association don't see eye to eye, it's the football that suffers. One only needs to look around and talk to the football people in the province to know the real status of the sport here on the local front and elsewhere.
So, is there still hope for Philippine football? Probably, the only hope is that despite the gloom that characterizes the football leadership in the country, there are still people and entities who haven't given up hope, just like the young American entrepreneur Bill Shaw and his wife who sponsored a team of underprivileged kids who represented the country in the 2008 Homeless World Cup in Australia. (More on this in our next column.)
P.S. Best of luck to the Don Bosco Team Neg. Occ. Under-15 squad who will see action in the Dec. 6-11 Philippine Olympic Festival in Cagayan de Oro City. The team is mentored by our football friend Warren Concepcion and is composed of a core from DBTI plus selections from WNU, BCNHS Bago City, La Carlota City and San Carlos City.
