THERE’s a brewing war between PFF president Mari Martinez and the Cebu Football Association and I hope it will result to Martinez getting sacked and being held accountable for the funds the organized used while he is office.
Martinez sent a scathing letter last Aug. 3 to CFA president Richard Montayre, calling the Cebuano an arrogant, stubborn man who has poor comprehension of the English language.
That letter was the result of CFA’s numerous inquiries to the Asian Football Confederation on where the AFC Vision Asia funds for Cebu went, because they suspect thse were being held by the PFF.
Since they don’t trust the PFF president, the office was naturally bypassed.
Martinez, obviously, wasn’t pleased, hence that letter.
(By the way, the PFF president shouldn’t be pissed about being bypassed. It’s what he did to the CFA when he offered the management of the RP U14 team to a Cebu club, didn’t he?
When that club told me of that news, I told them, “Ayaw’g dawata hantud wala pa gihatag ni Martinez ang tanan niyang gisaad.”)
Montayre, too, wasn’t pleased. Aside from telling the PFF president to get his facts straight, he wrote, “This clearly (shows) a lack of commitment and support from the PFF to the CFA, (there is a) lack of transparency of the PFF, not only to the CFA, but also to the rest of the 32 football associations in the country.”
Bravo!
Finally, someone has the guts to call a spade, a spade.
Finally, someone has the guts to stand up to Martinez.
Will we be rid of him, finally?
Though Montayre fell short of calling for Martinez’s resignation, I hope that letter, also sent to the 32 FAs, is enough to wake the slumbering associations from their stupor—Philippine football is dead and Martinez is to blame.
The last time I checked, PFF gets close to P25 million a year from Fifa, AFC, and the AFF but had zero national tournaments since Martinez took over.
That’s excluding half of the P10 million the AFC gave to Martinez in 2008, the year when grumblings of his allged mismanagement of the PFF surfaced and moves to have him ousted, started.
That move died.
I was so pissed with how a key figure in that oust Martinez movement, suddenly sang praises to Martinez. That’s when I started to lose interest in anything related to Philippine football—let them gorge themselves to death for all I care.
Now, there is hope.
It’s time to kick Martinez out of the PFF!
But to be realistic, though, because he is the still the PFF president, Martinez can still cling to power—think Gloria with a smaller budget—and can and will pressure the CFA for vengeance.
But the CFA shouldn’t be worried. What’s the worst the PFF can do?
Ban Cebu from national tournaments? There’s none! Ban anybody from Cebu from joining the RP team? That will only fuel the fire.
It’s too sad that the missing AFC Vision Asia funds have forced the CFA to freeze its projects in Cebu.
But fret not. I just learned this week good things come to those who wait.
So I’m pretty sure the CFA will have its work cut out for them as they try to promote grassroots development in the province of Cebu—something the PFF should be doing for the whole country.
Darn, I’d better fire off my own letter, too.
P.S. By the way, just in case my English wasn’t clear enough:
It’s time to kick Martinez out of the PFF! It’s time to kick Martinez out of the PFF! It’s time to kick Martinez out of the PFF!
(www.football.cebunetwork.com)