By Karlo Sacamos
The phenomenal growth of football in the Philippines alone should be
enough reason to send a national squad to the Southeast Asian Games this
December in Myanmar.
There have been reports that the Philippine Sports Commission is not
keen on sanctioning a football and volleyball team to the biennial
sports event, with chief of mission Jeff Tamayo saying “they can’t
guarantee a gold or silver.”
Football in the SEA Games is played among under-23 booters and the
Philippine team finished last among six teams in Group B in the 2011
edition in Indonesia.
But Azkals manager and national teams committee chair Dan Palami is adamant a football team deserves to go to the Myanmar Games.
“If there’s a sport that we should not stop from joining, one of them
should be football because it’s gaining momentum for us. This is
something our under-23s are looking forward to and they will be
preparing for that,” he said.
“Costs will be shouldered by private entities anyway so the
government will not have to bear the burden of subsidizing the costs,”
the 43-year-old entrepreneur from Tacloban added. “I see no reason why
they should not be sending football teams there.”
The Philippine Football Federation is planning to send men’s, women’s, and futsal squads in the upcoming SEA Games.
The PSC earlier expressed its plan to send a small delegation to the
SEA Games. And PSC commissioner Jolly Gomez on Wednesday admitted the
country’s sports governing body is focused more on preparing teams for
the Asian Games next year.
“We’re discussing the Southeast Asian Games delegations and the
problems of team sports. When you’re looking at team sports, we’re
actually looking more toward next year in the Asian Games,” he said.
spin
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Fatlami is farting again.
ReplyDeleteHow can he gauge the azkals achievement with under 23s??
It is 2 different entities.
With no fix coach and proper plan in place the under 23s is really wasting their time going there.
How can the Philippines expect their football team to be competitive if the players and fans are not exposed the to international competitions like the SEAG? The leadership wants silver or gold medals but you can't get a medal unless you have prepared enough for it. A good part of preparation to reach this goal is through practice and exposure. I agree with Mr. Palami and his initiatives. All the best to his team and all those who support it.
ReplyDeleteSend the team to Myanmar. Win or lose, it will reap benefits in the future. To stay competetive in the SEA region we need to be exposed to these types of tournaments. Again, send the team to Myanmar!
ReplyDelete