I GOT a call the other day from Keith Buyco, who is with the Philippine Air Force Football Club. He expressed his frustations at the latest development in the local league.
A week after it started, the Philippine Premier League (PPL) went belly-up after the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) terminated its agreement with the PPL.
That announcement came just days after I got an email from the PPL that due to circumstances beyond its control, it was not holding games in the second week. I guess we now know what those circumstances are. The PFF announced that it will revert to the Philippine Football League (PFL), the previous domestic competition that was replaced by the PPL after just a couple of years.
Buyco was frustrated because before even that, things were more than convoluted, with people doing one thing and saying another. He told me that the two teams who supposedly pulled out--Stallions Laguna and Global Makati--were never really party of the league. The Stallions, he said, never signed up, while Global Makati wasn’t allowed to join because of its unpaid obligations to other players when it was still Global Cebu. Curiously, Global Makati has announced that it is ready to join the PFL but whether its ghost of Global Cebu past will haunt it, we will yet know.
Buyco fears that if the PPL sues the PFF for this latest twist, it will only complicate things further.
“I hope the PFF and the PPL will sort this out,” he said.
As for the Air Force, which was one of two clubs that were denied a license to compete in local professional football by the PFF, it is adopting a wait-and-see approach.
“But if the PFL will adopt a home-and-away format, I don’t think we can afford to join it,” he said.
I hope all this drama in the local domestic scene gets sorted out soon. It’s a pity that this is happening, considering both Ceres Negros and Kaya FC are doing well in the AFC Cup.
PALARO FOOTBALL. News in the national scene might be bad, but things turned out well for our Central Visayas team in the Palarong Pambansa. The elementary squad of Glen Ramos—made up of players from Don Bosco Technological Center, Paref-Springdale and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu—won the gold medal, while the high school team of Rommel Ramirez settled for the silver.
The elementary team defeated Western Visayas, 2-1, in the finals, while the high school team took the lead first, 1-0, but eventually lost to Western Visayas also, 2-1.
It’s not a bad campaign for both squads, considering how difficult it is to get to the finals in the Palarong Pambansa.
The members of the elementary squad are Rhyss Christopher Abao, Lord Daniel Alovera, Rayne Asher Amora, John Lexter Conde, Czar Robert Daanoy, Kurt Justine Barro, Iehron Ezekiele Lao, Allister Louis Manlosa, Mark Anthony Talingting Jr., and Fernando Jayme Pasco from DBTC; Jared Willy Almendras, James Louiel Comon and Marco Anton Queblatin of SHS-AdC; Eugene Christian Molleno and Ethan Jacob Roxas of Paref Springdale; and David Lance Ybañez of Looc and Kenneth Bilocura of Dumaguete.