Hope for Global

NOW, before we celebrate that Global-Cebu is coming home, the club actually playing once more in Cebu shores isn’t going to happen soon.

The reason is that there are logistical issues and key challenges that the club must overcome in the next couple of months. The first one, of course, is the cup it is competing in right now, the Copa Paulino Alcantara of the Philippine Football League. Global will be playing all its games in Luzon for the duration of the cup.

In the group stage, Global has these clubs to contend with in Group B: JPV Marikina away tomorrow at Carmona in Cavite, Kaya Iloilo at “home” at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on Sept. 23, JPV at “home” on Sept. 26, its last match.

Under new head coach Dragutin Stevic-Rankovic, Global lost 4-0 to Kaya-Iloilo in its first game in the cup last Sept. 1. The Serbian coach, though, arrived only three weeks before the match, barely enough time to familiarize with an ailing club, much more remedy its ills. Besides, the football community would be happy to see the club survive until the next PFL season.

But if Global does make it past the group stage--yes, stranger things have happened in football--the matches will still be played most likely in Luzon, where all the Copa Paulino Alcantara games are held until the championship match on Oct. 27.

All this means that Global fans will have to wait longer for the club’s homecoming and to see them actually play in its home stadium. Besides, the bigger problem is where.

Apart from scouring the country for club investors and sponsors, one of which is apparel brand Puma, Global’s new owner Mark Jarvis has been busy looking for permanent venue for the club.

Global’s former home stadium, the Cebu City Sports Complex, would have been the ideal pick. But the facility is beset by maintenance issues and improper use, and unless addressed, could just add to the club’s homelessness woes.

One of the venues that Global is looking at as its home stadium is the privately owned Dynamic Herb Sports Complex, which is being built on a 1.2-hectare property near the South Road Properties in Cebu City. The main feature of the facility, which will have an indoor gym, will be an international standard artificial football field with bleachers.

Jarvis reportedly is open to the idea of calling the sports complex home, so long as it does meet the tournament standards, which are quite stringent but essential in professionalizing the country’s club system.

Hopefully the field finally does get finished after repeated delays, and Jarvis and Dyanmic Herb management would reach an agreement. The location of the football field might be an issue for some Global fans, but that’s way better than flying all the way to Manila to watch a “home” match.

Global Cebu has been beset with so much problems that it’s almost a miracle the team is still intact. Credit goes to the club’s players, staff, stakeholders and fans who have stuck with the club against the odds. So far, Global’s rehabilitation is on track. And finding a permanent home will definitely pave Global’s path to revival.

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