MANILA, Philippines – With barely 2 weeks left before the much awaited game between the Philippine Azkals and Mongolia, organizers have yet to finish preparing the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City which will host the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualifier.
Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) chairman Monico Puentevella said they have yet to complete the installation of additional lights in Panaad as requested by the AFC for live television coverage of the night games.
The additional lighting will come from the nearby Paglaum Sports Complex, which is also located in Bacolod City.
He, however, said that organizers were being given a hard time in transferring the lights.
“Sa approval ng pag-gamit ng lights, sana huwag na kaming pahirapan,” said an irritated Puentevella.
He said they were already granted permission by the Department of Education (DepEd), which manages the Paglaum Sports complex.
Philippine Azkals team manager Dan Palami hopes the problem will be solved soon.
“It’s sad for the team, you know, these things like lights and preparation of the pitch will not be ready come game time because at the end of the day it will be Bacolod who will be affected, I think,” he said.
The Azkals will face a younger Mongolia squad on February 9 for a home-and-away qualifying series for the AFC Challenge Cup.
Azkals continue training
The Azkals, meanwhile, continue their training in secret venues to keep away from the fans.
Palami said that their preparations are sometimes hampered by die-hard Azkals fans.
“As long as they maintain the distance from the players, where it becomes obtrusive, then we will have no problem with that because some fans will go to the pitch,” he said.
Local players also had to adjust with their new teammates, mostly Filipino-Europeans, because of their thick English accents.
Ilonggo booter Reymak Palmes said that sometimes, they resort to sign language.
“Dinadala na lang namin sa sign language kung minsan. Ang mas importante, mabuild up ang team at mapabuti pa ang komunikasyon sa isa't isa,” he said. -- With a report from Ragie Arellano, ABS-CBN News Iloilo
ABS CBN News
It's absolutely outrageous that the Panaad Stadium is nowhere near ready for Feb 9. The consequences could be fatal for Philippine football. The AFC and Mongolia have every right to order cancellation of the game; coach Weiss may give up in despair, and all the foreign cash promised for grassroots development could be withdrawn overnight.
ReplyDeleteIf it takes a suicide bomber to get those lights up and running, so be it.
Dear God, will bureaucratic bullshit and roguery never end in this beautiful but pitifully sad country?
I don't interpret this as bureaucratic bulls#*t. I see it as an opportunity for someone to make money, so that the right bribe would make things happen. Worse.
ReplyDeletePurely conjecture.
I concur with xyz. Seems like it's one of those "hmm...I'm sure that if the right politician spoke with us, we could make this light thing going...Mr. Ben Franklin? Ulysses Grant?"
ReplyDeleteHey jonny,
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you put a link to the original article since you are basically using other people's stories to fill up your website? At least if you put up a link, it would give your readers a chance to read the original article from its source website and gets hits as well.
Did you even ask permission from its authors to use them? With the other articles on the other websites to the right they at least have original content and link other people's articles so people can check the source.
Your website does serve a purpose of being a central clearinghouse for news on Filipino football but at least place a link to the source like other websites do.
As much as I love the Azkals and want them to win (and also promote football in the Philippines), I'm afraid the ineptness of the government in organizing things will be the Azkals downfall. Honestly, how hard is it to transfer stadium lights when national reputation is at stake? This ineptness was also shown when the Philippine embassy in Germany didn't bother to expedite the processing of Fil-German player's passports so people like Stephan Schrock ended up not being able to play in last year's Suzuki Cup. To quote an English saying: "they couldn't organize a piss-up (drinking party) in a brewery"
ReplyDeleteYes, the stadium does kind of suck but please, please lang. Wag naman maging pessimistic. The Azkals need our support. We need to show other countries that Filipinos are capable of being good at football too, no matter what the condition of the stadium/pitch is. We have to make do with the Panaad stadium.
ReplyDeleteJust because our country doesn't have a decent football stadium doesn't mean that our national football team will meet their downfall soon. Let's just be behind them and cheering them all the way. But yes, I agree that Pnoy's doing a shitass job of improving the sports industry in our country. He's probably too busy playing his video games...tss.