Scratch that question
In my first post in months, I ended that article with why the Cebu Football Association sent two teams to the Philippine Olympics Festival--Cebu City and Cebu Province.
Scratch that question.
If someone really wanted to throw a monkeywrench to the production line--and has a bit of money--we could have at least six teams in the POF.
The POF is LGU-based, all a team needs to do is get the endorsement from an LGU to join the event. We could have teams from Danao City, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Carcar City, Naga City, Talisay City--and that's just the cities--in the POF.
Scratch that question.
If someone really wanted to throw a monkeywrench to the production line--and has a bit of money--we could have at least six teams in the POF.
The POF is LGU-based, all a team needs to do is get the endorsement from an LGU to join the event. We could have teams from Danao City, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Carcar City, Naga City, Talisay City--and that's just the cities--in the POF.
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Here is the twist. The four abovementioned LGUs can actually disregard any CebuFA "qualifying tournament" and just go ahead with sending their own team. Thus, if CebuFA cannot get these LGU's to agree to have only one Cebu team to the POF, then we can have as many as 4 Cebu-based teams going to the regionals.
Thus, SRFC, SRRU, CIC-Mandaue and SHS-J for example can approach Mandaue officials and present themselves to represent Mandaue City, or the Mandaue sports authority can assign a coaching staff to form the Mandaue team, WITHOUT HAVING TO GO THRU A CEBUFA ORGANIZED QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT. The role of CebuFA becomes mere ministerial. All they have to do is to certify that the team met qualifications. Unfortunately, qualifications like residency requirements or school requirements are not required by POF officials. Just FA endorsement.
So, if LGUs can simply go ahead with forming their own teams, CebuFA (as the endorsing body) needs to formulate their own requirements, to impose at least a minimum degree of integrity as far as endorsing qualified athletes is concerned. If the POF is essentially an LGU-based competition, then the athlete should either be a resident within the domain the LGU or a student of a school based in that LGU.
If such a requirement is implemented, then the ANS situation would not be repeated. For example, a SanRoqueFC player, residing in Cabancalan, cannot play under Cebu City, Cebu Province, or Lapu-lapu City. That player can only play for Mandaue.
The loophole here would be if the player resides in one city and is enrolled in a school based in another city. Then the CebuFA should make the decision which has more jurisdictions - place of residence or place of studies. Where should a SHS-J (Cabancalan, Mandaue) player living in Mabolo (Cebu City) be eligible to play - Mandaue or Cebu?
I got myself into a spirited debate with a CebuFA director about this issue. This POF set-up means that any team manager or coach can just go to the city mayor or governor, pull some strings, and have their team represent the LGU. Nevermind if it is the best team or the best players. The "palakasan" system can come in. Why? Because LGUs are no longer obliged to follow the results of a CebuFA qualifying tournament, and the CebuFA cannot impose on the LGUs to respect the result of the qualifying tournament and send only one Cebu team to the competition. If you are close with the mayor or the mayor's wife, then your team can represent the city if the mayor wants to. Theoretically, of course.
This will mean that this year's Aboitiz U14 (1995) and P15 (1993)tournaments may not be the POF qualifying tournaments, unless the Cebu LGUs decide to respect the FA's desire to have just 1 Cebu team per age-group.
For example, if the Aboitiz U17 tournament has the following teams finishing in this order - InterCebu, Springdale, SRFC, DBTC, DB-BoysHome, InterLapulapu, SHS-J, UV-Compostela, BalambanFC, SRRU, LapuLapu National High School - then the POF representatives for the different LGUs would be the following - InterCebu (Cebu City) over Springdale, SRFC (Mandaue City) over SHS-J, DB-BoysHome (Cebu Province) over UV-Compostela, and InterLapuLapu (LapuLapu City) over LapuLapu National High School.
Such a set-up will determine the best team of each LGU. The Aboitiz U17 tournament shall have two functions - determine the best U17 team and to determine LGU representation.
Of course, the LGUs will always have the option of throwing away any CebuFA suggestion and simply form their team their own way. A possible complication would be - what if no LGU will sponsor a team due to financial constraints. Question now ould be - can the CebuFA U17 qualifying champion compete in the POF without LGU recognition?
By the way, Bai Mike, when can we start talking about that "off-the-record-for-now" issue that may affect one of our POF teams ?
Anyway, ang lingaw sa off the record is, kung naay lain makadungog nga wala gi sultian nga off the record....well, then it isn't. Pirmi na na mahitabo news..
Hala sige, istoryahan lang unya na nato kanag "off the record for now" inig kaabot sa "now".