| Villaflor: A million dollar question |
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| Sunday, 30 December 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||
 MULTITUDES the world over speak of football as though it were a religion. But when the top sport’s deity descended on our shores early this month with $400,000 manna for Philippine football, hardly anyone sang a song of praise.Instead, the windfall was met with great caution. Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, president of the International Football Federation or FIFA, was just as wary. He and the rest of the football gods have been witness to Philippine football’s downward spiral over the last century. Blatter yearns for Philippine football’s golden years. But every time the sport is poised to take a big stride, it trips on its own, face down, and humiliates itself before the international football community. As of this writing, the Men’s National Team is stuck at 179 out of 201 spots in the Fifa rankings. And why it failed to send a men’s team to the Southeast Asian Games after a decent performance at the start of the year is beyond me. “Help yourself and heaven will help you,” Blatter admonished the believers, doers and the heathen during the centennial celebration of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) in Manila last Dec. 7. Let’s hope everybody paid attention because when a top sports official starts calling out to heaven, you know we’re in deep excrement. That means the new set of PFF officers have a lot in their hands. In a country obsessed with basketball and Judy Ann’s constant mutation, few would bother to keep an eye on the PFF. Yet Fifa’s $250,000 yearly subsidy, aside from the $400,000 top-up aid, is a lot of money, and how that trickles down to the grass roots is a burning question. Will other areas such as Cebu even get loose change? One thing for certain is that the Cebu football community helps itself. The numerous tourneys and festivals for the past three years, many of which are independently funded, is testament to that. The coming year will be no less vibrant in Cebu. But in the capital where the crucial decisions are made, 2008 can be a make-or-break year for Philippine football. Let’s just hope that the PFF officials share Blatter’s vision and lamentation. To them, enlightenment, please. EMBRACE ME You must be wondering, dear accidental reader, why this column suddenly popped up on this page. The truth is, this column is six months overdue, and I now have a vague idea how it feels to give birth. It is excruciating to undergo labor when you’re pregnant with ideas and there’s not much pushing, huffing and puffing. Call this writing’s equivalent of a caesarian section. You get the drift. But I am just a taker of notes of the sport I love best (I dig boxing but, football, I can play). Lately though, I have found my weekends devoid of football games. Blame this on my feeble joints. So what must one do when the spirit is willing but the body, stubborn? Write. Last I heard, nobody tears ligaments typing. Besides, the sport can do with one less lout off the field. But I suffer from a niggling urge. The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, a frustrated footballer himself, couldn’t have said it any better: “By writing, I was going to do with my hands what I never could accomplish with my feet: irredeemable klutz, disgrace of the playing fields, I had no choice but to ask of words what the ball I so desired denied me.” So embrace me, dear muse of sports writing. (Writing by Noel Villaflor)
terry
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| Thanks for the article/site. I could not believe soccer is big now in the Philippines aside from Arnel Pineda (which I am planning to see his concert with journey comes August). I used to work in Cebu andright now I live in syracuse, NY. My daughter is a soccer player and she is 13 years old, in 7th grade but plays varsity at her school. I am the happiest soccer mom because if I will bring my daughter again to the Philippines, that means I can have her trained as well. |
Indiobravo
said:
| American influence guys,american influence.We pinoys aspire to be like the yankees,in politics,showbiz, dress code and sports.Thank God for cable TV from Star Asia sports,our eyes are opened to the reality that what the whole world plays is not basketball but football! And football is a sport we can be really competitive locally and internationally.Now it's up to us to choose. |
joShi
said:
| why not burn the candle at both ends?...a lot of local clubs are also hampered from further growth and expansion by the exclusivity of the old guard at most football clubs or organizations. that's one of the foregoing reasons why instead of staying with an established club the younger set would rather opt to form their own groups rather than put up with the restrictive atmosphere. it may seem that every year more and more groups are joining the competitions but as long as the same old mentality exists, there will never be true growth in local football. |
ino
said:
| FIFA or PFF should learn from our present politics. I believe the only way to promote and develop football is to decentralize it. I am sorry to say that PFF has got nothing to do with some countryside development of football like negros, iloilo and cebu. Especially Cebu where I have seen football being developed independently by those who love the game. I think it is about time these people who have helped develop football using their own resources should lead and have a say about the future of this game in our country, not politicians or people sitting in the PFF! |
Alvin
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| After living 9 yrs in Germany and growing up with football, I was really sad and mad that there wasn't any organized football in Cavite City when we came back, I was 17 then, except for the occassional cramming tranings for STRAA. Why are there so very few sports clubs in our country, unlike in Germany, where you only have to find a club near your place and learn the sport you want to learn and with talent succed in it or try something new? |
supremo
said:
| lets give football a chance, maybe this sport fit for the pinoys.. |
runi
said:
| We enjoy basketball, yes, but we now sucked internationally when the tall people starting to learn the game we once called king in asia, just look at the chinese they look awful playing back then, and look at them now. how about kasakhstan once we beat them, but now we're scared of them. maybe its time to look for something new, and i've seen football as a great possible answer, as i've witnessed the biggest football game in bacolod city when the sea games was held here, the tremendous response was great we have a monstrous crowd there, although we fumble at the end but it was a good start for philippine football, sadly there was no follow-up. |
hardstud
said:
| I don't know why most of us pinoys like so much about basketball when the game is not a fit to us. Basketball should be discouraged and more football jerseys should be in stores. |
