| Picson: More football talk |
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| Friday, 16 November 2007 | |||||||
By Ed Picson MANILA (MB) - Last tuesday I wrote about the coming elections of the Philippine Football Federation and the pleasant lunch I had with some football people including three of the four contenders for the presidency.Well, I was surprised at the number of reactions I got about the piece — I didn’t think that many people were still interested about a sport that whenever is played in these parts, attracts mostly relatives and friend of the players-if they’re lucky. This is in stark contrast to elsewhere in the world where everything stops when there’s a major football game going on. I recall several international games I covered for television where traffic in those foreign cities was almost non-existent especially when the home team was playing. In the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, when the Malaysian football team lost a close game, I remember averting my eyes from those I encountered in the streets because I felt as if everyone was so on-the-edge because of the loss, they might have picked a fight with me for the flimsiest of reasons. Hereabouts, nobody cares- or so I thought. Then I started getting messages from friends and acquaintances who shared the same frustration of the football people to the indifference of the Filipino sports fan to the world’s most popular sport. I spoke with Tony Chua, the PBA chairman, who was and is involved in football in a big way. He was a player of the Letran team ( Red Bull owner George Chua was also in the team) in the 70’s. Tony went on to coach and manage the Letran varsity and handed 4 championships in the 5 years that he handled the team. Chua, who is currently vice-president of the PFF, feels that football can never move forward in this country as there is even no decent football field around. "When you kick a ball forward in most of our fields, you never know where it will actually go, there are so many bumps and undulations in the pitch that getting the ball to where you want it to go is a matter of luck," Chua grimaces. What needs to be done? He says government has to lend a helping hand to put up new football fields or at least maintain the existing ones. I wished him well on that idea. I said that although private sector support is also iffy because they would want maximum exposure in exchange for financial outlay, at least there could be some hope. Wishing for government support would be like, well-kicking a ball in a Philippine football field. I also received a message from a friend I had not seen or heard from in ages who said he was in complete agreement with my take on football-that there should be efforts made to develop a player or players who would be the face of Philippine football, as Manny Pacquiao is to boxing or Efren "Bata" Reyes is to pool. A former classmate in grade school called to reminisce about the times we would play in the Letran football field (the basketball courts were full). Some of the Spanish Dominican friars would play with us and we used the opportunity to get rough with them. Alas, we were gangling teen-agers and the priests were full-grown Caucasians who not only played well, but were also wise to our antics. We ended up the ones with the bruises, cuts and unbelievable body aches - which is why we thought it was healthier to just wait for our turn at the basketball courts. But we always found soccer to be fascinating. The uniforms and gear certainly were attractive enough. Seeing Mike Crame, my classmate Jimmy Chan, Marcelino Go, that goalkeeper Arroyo, whose first name escapes me and the rest of the team alighting from our school bus after an "away" game all dirtied and muddied somehow appealed to us. Sadly, the Letran football field has since been paved over and turned into a parking lot, so I doubt if it is still a sport that Letranites can relate to. Such a shame, indeed. A couple more friends texted in to say they were happy to see me writing about a sport they felt Filipinos should support. I guess this is something the new football dispensation could build on. * * * * Speaking of Letran, we are celebrating our 90th Grand Alumni Homecoming at the Letran campus grounds in Intramuros on Saturday, November 24 at 7 p.m. Letran Grade School Batch ’78 and High School Batch ’82 are hosting this year’s fun activities. All Letran alumni are invited to come. For details, please call the Letran alumni office at 527-1775.
B.
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| Contrary to the doom and gloom shared by most, well, all actually, hahaha, football in the philippines should improving with each passing each year. That's how it is when youve already reached rock bottom! mwahahaha. Well based on my own opinion it appears that more and more Filipinos are getting into football, or at the very least, watching football games on tv. And this only happened because of cable tv and coverage of international football. the inutile PFF could have facilitated matters but even without any help coming from it whatsoever in the coming years (as what we can surely expect), i believe things have already been set into motion and Philippine football will continually move forward. |
shand
said:
| Yeah, it's too bad football is not supported by our goverment but I don't think metro manila is the only venue for a proposed football stadiums because here in Visayas (mostly Iloilo and Negros) we have lots of open spaces and rich grasslands. Most players who played in the Philippine team comes from these areas. |
