TWO weeks ago, the newly installed board of governors of the Central Visayas Football Association (CVFA) chose Rodney Orale as the president of the group that will replace the Cebu Football Association (CFA) as the governing body of the sport.
Engr. Rodney has been with the local FA for almost 10 years as the one in charge of the local referees. I’ve known the referees; those who belong to the previous factions and uniting them is no mean feat. That’s the theme of the previous board, of which Orale was also a part.
Unity.
Not only were the previously fractured referees group unified, so was the whole community.
So, since we are all part of this community--me as spectator, writer and organizer of the SunStar Football Cup--it’s important that we get behind the new board of governors and offer them our support.
Almost all of them are football parents, and this early, let me cut that tired old BS that they’ll be favoring their children’s schools and that we should get officers whose kids aren’t in football.
First of all, these officers are in football because of their children. That’s the universal truth in sports. Parents get involved in sports because of their kids. If you want truly neutral officers whose interest can’t be linked to any school, we have to go to Fifa for that and maybe even offer them Fifa-level salaries.
And of course, just because they have kids in the sport, it doesn’t automatically make them biased. Nor would it mean that they’d only look out for their kids’ teams’ welfare.
I know most of the officers and we’ve had talks about local football, and their concerns have always been about the community in general. Whenever we talk about their sons’ or daughters’ teams, it’s because I steer the conversation that way.
So, aside from the support the new board needs, let’s also trust them. Let’s trust the process that they are undertaking in making CVFA as inclusive and as successful as the old CFA was.
There will be some misunderstandings of course. That is unavoidable in a group, much more a new one. But let’s all keep the communication line open. Let’s not return to the old days when factionalism was so bad that communication lines were closed.
The old board and the old CFA left their posts united. The new board and the new CVFA are starting their mandate with a united front.
So, let’s all unite them and trust their process.