THE only positive thing that we can take in that loss against Timor Leste was that the U23 squad looked good in blue. And Ebong, too. The Blue-Haired fanatic whose voice we all heard on TV was fantastic. The team? The result? To be perfectly blunt it was a scrappy game from a scrappy team that seemed to treat the SEAG as a vacation, or a chance to gain more Twitter followers. (Yey, I can tweet the team apology first!) Going into the match, almost every fan who paid attention knew that we needed to win. Unfortunately, it seemed the players were operating on a different mindset.
Comments
forums of clubs are too self serving. expect a critical post to be deleted by administrators. however, a cebufootball forum will best serve it's purpose if you can get CebuFA to respond or at least post informative stuff on it. create a thread or "a CebuFA" category wherein an official representative from them is the only one who can post. any reactions to their posts will have to be done on a separate category.
Well Mike it would be nice if you'll have a little bit of both a forum and a blog in one single page... A blog format with a functionality of a forum.
yup, i am more critical than appreciative when it comes to cebufootball. just so happens that i see and hear a lot of things that doesn't see print or never leaves the CebuFA boardroom. i do try to exert effort to make sure that the views and opinions that i post are backed up by facts from reputable sources.
knowing certain facts behind CebuFA announcements brings justice to blogs or forums where correspondence can be unedited BUT it is also a freedom that could be abused. administrators can of course moderate the posts, but i agree with you Riscoh, CebuFA would not participate in a forum where they can be criticized consistently, especially by those who criticize for the fun of it.
but there are a lot of questions on issues that has never been answered. i'm certain that CebuFA has an eye and an ear on this blog and other forums. some issues they turn a blind eye to because it has no basis - some they won't answer or simply hope will go away and get buried under new posts because it has some truth to it and they don't know how to deal with it or has no answers to it.
CebuFA has a communication problem with a majority of it's constituents. i don't think a forum or a blog administered by mike or anybody else is a solution to that problem, unless they actively participate (which we doubt). blogs and forums like this are for the football fans. for the meantime, lets keep it that way.
1. first, we have to acknowlege that most festivals are organized by private individuals or companies. it is their prerogative to ask or waive a registration fee. there are incidental expenses (equipment, field fees, promotional fees, administrative fees) other than field expenses (referees' fees, snacks, etc.)that needs cold cash.
2. clubs and schools cannot demand a registration-free festival if organized by private individuals who will ask for registration fees. if you don't want to pay - then don't play.
3. pitch-sizes is a problem. we don't follow any standard size of what should be the minimum dimensions of an pitch for each division. i have seen 7 a side matches played on a pitch smaller than that of a basketball court for the P12 bracket. the game quality was horrible to say the least. perhaps the CebuFA, as part of their requirements when sanctioning a festival, should require minimum field or pitch dimensions. proper pitch size often leads to better played matches. not the karambola games we often see.
4. sponsors wants maximum exposure for minimum cost. that's why festival organizers are sometimes forced to lay-out smaller pitches and shorter games in order to satisfy this promotional neccessity. but we need to balance things out. if field size and play time makes play very restrictive then it wouldn't be good for football. playing in a festival under these conditions would not make better players. we may have fun, but the issue for me here is about quality games.
5. would setting standards for sponsors and organizers to follow before giving them CebuFA sanction help ?
yes, i'm confident it will. we would be setting up field conditions that will allow players to play football - not karambola.
6. would setting up standards turn-off sponsors and organizers because it may affect their promotional goals or affect their profits.
yes, it's possible if their goal is primarily to promote their products or to earn a profit.
in the short-term, i don't see any real financial gains if you go into football as a sponsor or organizer. what i do see is a lot of goodwill on the side of the sponsors.
i don't fully understand what is needed for a festival or tournament to be sanctioned - nor do i fully understand what are the disadvantages and advantages one gets if it is sanctioned. i understand the disciplinary part but the rest is vauge to me.
assuming CebuFA cannot organize the necessary number of tournaments we need in order to improve our game and they have to depend on the sanctioning of festivals and tournaments, that doesn't have to mean that they cannot impose on organizers certain standards to insure that the games will be of high quality. and by certain standards, i just don't mean qualified refs, standard ball size, etc. the standards i mean would include minimum pitch size, minimum game time, number of games per week (tournaments), number of games a day (festivals), format, etc.
i feel that the CebuFA must do that, of course, as part of a football development program. requiring that all tournaments, organized or sanctioned by the CebuFA, to follow standards that are within the approved cebufootball development program would bring us a step closer to becoming a football superpower and not just settle for close seconds or lousy thirds.
imalso trying to have a forum developed.