How the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) got the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Grassroots Charter-Silver Membership award still makes me crazy. But then I realise not everyone is crazy enough to believe them, except the award giving body, the Asian Football Federation (AFC).
According to a report on the PFF website, the country’s football governing body got this award as the ‘fruit of its hard work in its commitment in grassroots football’. The report also enumerates the different grassroots program of the PFF like the Kasibulan program, the FOF initiative plus the one day Grassroots Day last May 2019 that earned them this award.
Let us dissect these ‘programs’ individually one by one. First the Kasibulan Project which was launched in 2012 with funds from PAGCOR and also from big companies like SMART and Phil-Am Life Insurance. PAGCOR reportedly pumped in P20 million and SMART added another P20 million for the nationwide program to teach the beautiful game to the Filipino children.
With these amount of money poured into the Kasibulan Program, thousands of kids should have benefited from it. But wait. Where are the kids? Where is the money? The truth is there was lot of money but there was no program. Yes, there were launchings and photo ops here and there for the televisions and the newspapers but in reality there was no program for the kids.
I know this program reached Mindanao during 2012 and the rest of the provinces but has lost its way and since 2016, even Goggle Maps could not locate it anymore. Of course they can justify where the money has gone. That is why the AFC was convinced that the PFF has a good grassroots program. Kasibulan was launched in 2012 and just fissuled out. Just like the the Kansas song ‘Dust In the Wind’, the program remained just like that, “Dust in the Wind”.
Unfortunately PAGCOR, SMART and Phil-Am Life have learned their lessons. Phil-Am Life has invested their sponsorships to a private company operating the Phil-Am Life Sevens tournament while PAGCOR and SMART have have snubbed the beautiful game.
Now the Festival Of Football more known as the FOF. It is not even a grassroots program but a selection program by the PFF done on different Regional FAs every summer to scout for potential players for the different youth national teams. The different FA’s conduct their own trials and then send those who they think are good enough for the national teams for another selection by the national coaches. Then the players are selected and train for at least two to three weeks to be sent abroad for different age group competitions.
We had a very bad experience with this selection program. Last year, we formed a very strong team from Cagayan de Oro City to be sent to the FOF in Tubod, Lanao Del Norte for a two-day selection. The head coach of the supposed to be age group team did not even dare to show up for the selection. Only his assistants were present to see the players.The Cagayan de Oro selection whipped the balls out of their opponents from the different Mindanao Regional FA’s. However, not a single player from the Cagayan de Oro team was selected. We complained and when the final selection was made, the PFF named one of the CdO players to the team as a consuelo de bobo.
This selection program is flawed. Why? We found out that the most of the players selected to the national youth teams were players of the appointed coaches from their various schools where the coaches also worked. Then, the time of preparation for the tournaments is too short. It was a menu for disaster. And the results were massacres left and right. That has been going on for many years now and the PFF still has the galls to show off this program as its grassroots program. “Wa mo kuyapi?” (A Cebuano expression with literal meaning of: You did not faint?) And the AFC sees nothing wrong with that and gives the PFF an award.
Lastly the Grassroots Day is an annual initiative of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to promote the sport through a day long football festival. It is done all over the continent by the different countries including the Philippines. Remember it is just a one day festival. What can kids learn in a one day festival and the PFF gets and award for that.
The Azkals line-up for the China World Cup qualifying match in Bacolod last month had only two homegrown players, Joven Bedic and Amani Aguinaldo. For nine years since the ‘Miracle in Hanoi’ we have not developed any local talent good enough to play for the Azkals. It is because the PFF grassroots program that they claim is flawed. Just admit it then. The PFF does not have a grassroots program and it should return that Silver Award to the AFC. (l.biantan@gmail.com) (My opinion does not necessarily reflect the policy of this website. They are purely my own opinion.)
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