Cagayan de Oro is starting a novel concept with the Golden Friendship Football Club. In a nutshell, the club hopes to standardize the training of the footballers in the city and to provide compensation for clubs and coaches if and when their players get recruited.
Cagayan has been without a football association (FA) ever since its FA got suspended, so Golden Friendship taking over is a nice change. As to its second goal, that might not be a good idea and might lead to deserving Cagayan players getting overlooked by coaches and recruiters who’d prefer to deal with coaches who won’t seek compensation.
Of course, the first question is this, should clubs and coaches who discover, develop and train players be compensated if said players get recruited by bigger schools from bigger leagues?
If it’s basketball, the answer is a resounding yes. Big schools from big leagues make big money. And it’s simple arithmetic. You want our best players? Cough up. And that’s the way things have been done.
But should this be adopted in football?
For me, the answer is no. Whatever the reasons for getting into football--whether it’s your kids’ dream or your dream, your kids’ passion or yours--at one point, the reason that got you going was that you hope someday, he’d get a college scholarship. I’ve talked with a lot of parents over the years in the sidelines of their kids matches and whenever that topic comes up, they always say, “hopefully,” and if there’s a piece of wood nearby, they’d knock on it.
Which shows you that for them, that’s the whole purpose. So, what would happen if a potential player’s move to a bigger school, one that offers full scholarship, is hampered by a request for compensation from the club that trained him or her?
I mean, I know some parents in Cebu who throw the red carpet at coaches from UAAP and NCAA schools when they’re on a scouting mission. It benefits both teams--the recruiting school that gets new players and the school whose players get recruited since they get scholarships. This planned setup in Cagayan, for me, won’t benefit its players but players from other regions. Why? Simple. If you’re a recruiter or coach, why go to a city to recruit players if you know the city will be asking something from you in return?
And besides, the move might lead to coaches getting sidelined in the recruitment process, something I’m not in favor of. Parents who want their kids to go to a certain school won’t care if the coach gets compensated as long as their kids get the scholarship.
Also, this might violate the Magna Carta for Student Athletes as it could impede the movement of a student athlete.
I understand, though, why they are initiating such move but again, let’s go back to the fundamental question. Do you view the training of athletes as an investment that deserves to be repaid or do you see it as a job akin to a teacher who guides and educates students so they become better individuals?
Let’s see how this develops.