Limpag: UV’s option

THE first and only batch of coaches to get a lifetime ban from the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) for walking out denied they walked out because they were really never out of the venue. A flimsy and stupid excuse akin to a jaywalker saying, “I’m not jaywalking, I’m Mike, walking.”

I’m afraid University of the Visayas (UV) football coach Alex Ballesteros is going the same route. I can understand his worries. The ban means a loss of employment and he doesn’t want that. Heck, I don’t want that too. Like I said, previously, I like what he has done with UV’s program.

But he has to understand where Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy will be coming from when he makes the decision. There’s a set of ground rules and it states that a walkout will merit a lifetime ban. If he wants leniency, he has to give the commissioner some wiggle room and not press on and insist that there was no walkout.

The volleyball coaches got a reprieve, after three years I think when they showed remorse and asked for another chance.

I believe coach Ballesteros deserves another chance but he has to know that whatever Commissioner Tiukinhoy will decide on will be dissected by those who love to question him, the guys in basketball. If Tiukinhoy doesn’t give him a penalty, that will ring the naughty bell in some of the coaches’ minds, “Oy, pwede raman diay,” so expect some penalty.

But if you want leniency, you have to ask for it. And the first step in asking for it is acknowledging a mistake. Acknowledging a mistake doesn’t absolve the other team or the officials of any wrongdoing, it simply means you admit you were wrong. And coach Ballesteros can nitpick all he want but believe me, he was wrong the minute he stepped into the field.

Referees don’t need to explain a red card. Coaches know that. They certainly don’t have to issue a red because a coach wants them too. As for tournament manager Francis Ramirez’s absence, well, there were four officials in in the non-bearing game. I don’t know if his job description calls for him to be in the game every minute, but I can certainly understand why he opted not to. I can say this with certainty too, having covered the Cesafi football since Year 1, Ramirez is the best of the football tournament managers.

So what’s the option left for the UV coach? Let me digress a bit. Peru captain Paolo Guerrero’s 14-month ban that would have covered the FIFA World Cup was lifted because the captains of the team he would have faced signed an appeal. The circumstances surrounding the ban also helped—a failed drug test arising from contaminated tea.

Write a letter to the commissioner asking for leniency and ask the other coaches and their team captains personally to sign it. Why? Because if a basketball coach does such offense, I know some would rather eat burning charcoal than ask a rival for a favor. This is football.

The commissioner is not that cold and callous individual some portray him to be. He’s a nice old man who’s quick to laugh and has a heart of gold. But in this case, the nice old man has a lifetime ban waiting to be stamped. The letter will give him some wiggle room.

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