By Mike T. Limpag
Fair Play
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
IN A news item last week, Coach Michael Weiss blasted unnamed players for missing practice and said they shouldn’t slacken in their preparation for the Long Teng Cup next month.
He also took quite a dig by adding, “I’ve seen players more on billboards coming from Alabang to the training. I see them on billboards more often than on the pitch.”
They weren’t named in the report but the players were Kaya FC’s Anton del Rosario, Ali Borromeo and Jason Sabio, who missed practice on instructions of the team owner.
“It hasn’t been reported in the papers but he’s punishing our players,” the owner told me last week. “And he’s not bringing them to Bacolod.”
True enough, the players aren’t in Bacolod and missed out in the Azkals’ 3-1 wins over Global and Ceres-Negros U23.
But why did he tell the players to skip the Azkal practice, though?
The Azkals may practice just two hours a day, but the players spend twice that
traveling to and from practice, leaving them too tired for club activities.
And the owner, who spent P9 million on his club and has just signed the Azkals to lucrative deals, wants his money’s worth by having his players on hand for club activities—on the pitch or off it.
And you can’t really accuse Kaya FC of being selfish since during a crucial run in the last UFL season, they missed del Rosario and Borromeo who were on a scouting trip in the US.
So, was he justified in telling his players to miss practice?
Perhaps. But perhaps the players could have informed Coach Weiss beforehand?
Because they didn’t, as Cebuanos are wont to say, niulbo ang kaspa ni coach.
But, since I’m forever the optimist in Philippine football lately, I think something good will come out of this.
Almost all of the Azkals based here have signed deals—lucrative ones that even surpass the monthly pay of the top PBA rookies—with UFL clubs and as the national team gets busy with a lot of scheduled friendlies, and the UFL getting bigger this year, conflicts like this will rise often.
And before the problem gets out of hand, why not find a solution?
This isn’t Europe where big clubs hold a power struggle with their national associations, or even Fifa, to hold on to their players, this is the Philippines, where everyone in football, it seems, knows everyone else.
Besides, the Azkals need the UFL, the UFL needs the Azkals.
So, talk it over, guys. Besides, as a UFL team owner, Dan Palami is the perfect conduit between the national team and the club owners.
(www.cebufootball.blogspot.com)
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on September 15, 2011.
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Sounds like the beginning of club vs country conflict in the Philippines.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it would have been better if the players informed the coach of their commitments though as Mike said.
It's simple really.
ReplyDeleteThe Long Teng Cup is only a friendly tournament but more importantly it does not fall on FIFA match dates therefore clubs do not have any obligations in releasing their players, let alone releasing their players to start training for that tournament one month before it starts. Hands down, clubs win, its a non-issue!
It's the responsibility of Weiss, Palami or whoever else within the national team's backroom staff to communicate with the clubs and come up with a compromise that will suit the clubs as again, this is a tournament that doesn't fall on FIFA match dates.
Perhaps Weiss and Palami are a bit too dramatic when it comes to these issues. And it makes you wonder if the national team is starting to being ran like a club team.
That last sentence says it all: the NT has been run like a club team since before Weiss arrived. Rare luxury for any national coach but with the UFL growing in size, strength and professionalism the PFF will eventually have to accept what nearly all other national FA's have to: availability of players only for genuine international games.
ReplyDeleteThe Azkals do not need the UFL.
ReplyDelete"UFL=PBA" sana hindi matulad ang ufl sa pba
ReplyDeleteJapan needs the J. League
ReplyDeleteIran need the Iran Pro League
South Korea needs K-League
Every nation needs a local professional football league. A successful nation get their players from a "professional" football league. That's a fact!