Fair Play: J and J: Football's comeback kids

DURING a thanksgiving dinner the Cesafi threw for the media last year, I got to talk with commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy about lots of stuffs, some even about the coming May 10, 2010 election.

All those, of course, were off the record and some of the sports-related stuff, too.

But what I do remember distinctly in that gathering was Commissioner Tiukinhoy didn’t know the football event was already over.

“Naa na diay champion?”

That was after I told the commissioner of the “slight problem” the media had with getting in touch with the tournament director for football.

It turned out the Commish was having the same problem too.

Just this week he announced there’s a new tournament manager for my favorite sport.

“We could barely contact our tournament manager and we had no idea how the games (were going) because it was so hard to get the results.”

So last year’s manager is gone. Sadly, he was tapped because he was from the CFA, hence Cesafi expected a smooth event—no conflict of schedules, no haggling on the sanctions fees etc. There were really no conflicts, yes, but it seemed, there was also no event because nobody heard anything.

The Commish is trying to tap Jonathan Maximo, the other year’s tournament director and he said he’s still thinking about it.

I hope Maxi, though he’s busy playing as a one-man support crew and coach to his son’s budding cycling career, will accept the job.

I heard, too, that one club is trying to convince Maxi to take the job and they’ll put the club’s resources to make sure the event will be succesfull.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

Cesafi football might just give basketball a run for their money, this year.

What say you, Maxi?

ANOTHER RETURNEE. Should Maxi agrees he won’t be the only personality who’s making a comeback in the local scene. Joshua Fegidero, of the famous Fegidero football clan of Bacolod, is now back in Cebu, this time as a coach of Bright Academy.

Bright already has Dennis Penalosa, a member of the RP U14 team coaching staff, and Fegidero’s addition means the school’s bench just got more potent, it’s now comparable to the best in the country.

In his second year as coach, Fegidero won the Cesafi title for USC, because for once, he brought serious coaching with him. I remember one time when one player was caught smoking, during a non-game week, he and the whole team ran uphill to remind them how foolish lighting a joint is.

Some of the slackers quit the team, what he got left were those willing to learn.
And USC won the Cesafi for the first and only time.

Not to pressure John Pages but I hope Bright considers a football outreach program, maybe with the one across its campus, Banilad Elementary School? The knowledge that their two football coaches have is worth sharing with as many Cebuanos as possible.

FIRST-TIMERS. Finally, we are going to have a first time champion in the World Cup after Spain got past Germany, 1-0, in the second semifinal.

The Spaniards, the reigning Euro champions, will meet the Dutch, who have never won the World Cup, in the finals, while Germany plays Uruguay for third. Sigh, no more 2:30 a.m. matches and no more Friday columns for me after this one.

So after almost a month, we only have two games left in the World Cup, which has sprung surprise after surprise.

SWEET SWISS. Got an e-mail from Claudia Feldmann the other day and it’s too sweet not to share.

“Your latest article on Roger was great. I thoroughly enjoyed readying it. Being Swiss myself, Roger has become the great Swiss hope for many of us. What you had to say about the winning and the losing is all true.

But you are right, I don’t think Fed will give up at this point in the game. He loves it too much, and there is no reason he shouldn’t be able to continue playing. And I think we both know that he still believes in himself, and if the game becomes tougher I think that he will not stop trying. Again it was nice to read an article that didn’t trash Roger.”

Comments

tanya chica said…
Has maxi decided yet?
Mike Limpag said…
Yep, he's taking the job.

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