Complaint to FIFA

Here's a copy of a letter filed by five FA presidents against PFF president Mari Martinez. Fifa told Mari to answer this letter, but, I was told the good president ignored Fifa.

25 August 2009



MR. JEROME VALCKE
General Secretary
Fédération Internationale de Football Association
FIFA-Strasse 20
P.O. Box 8044
Zurich, Switzerland

Dear Mr. General Secretary:

Warmest greetings from the Philippine Football Community!

Faced with no other recourse, we write you to respectfully draw to your attention various actions of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) leadership led by Mr. Mari Martinez which are strongly perceived to be blatant and wanton violations of the FIFA rules and the PFF Charter and By Laws and inconsistent with the principles of Fair Play and professional governance.
To highlight some of the major violations, first, Since the PFF leadership’s assumption to office last November 2007 and despite widespread clamor by the football community, PFF President Jose Mari Martinez has refused to convene the first and second instance judicial bodies as well as internal PFF Arbitration Tribunal which FIFA has mandated and provided for in the PFF By-Laws; second, effective curtailment of the rights of the members of Congress; third, breach of the employment contract enterer into by the PFF and the 2008 AFC AID 27 Program coaches; and fourth, overall unprofessional and undemocratic manner of governance of the present leadership in terms of transparency in their decision making processes.
Kindly allow us to elaborate. 1. Anent the PFF’s continued refusal to convene the first and second instance judicial bodies and to set up an internal Arbitration Tribunal to resolve internal disputes which do not fall under the jurisdiction of the judicial bodies, it cannot be further gainsaid that an independent and robust judiciary system is indispensable in sustaining a healthy democracy within any Football Federation. Further, the FIFA has conceived the Arbitration Tribunal to settle these without any of the parties having to resort to ordinary courts of law; and prohibits resort to these court of law in order to insulate and protect the beautiful game from external pressures. As a matter of fact a complaint was filed on December 11, 2007 questioning the legitimacy of Mr. Martinez’s election as president in November 2007 based in the PFF Constitution of 16 September 2007 (annex “A”). The complaint was duly received by the PFF and to this date has not been acted upon (annex “A-1”).
On January 17, 2009, Oriental Mindoro Football Association (FA), Naga City-Camarines Sur ( FA ), Laguna ( FA ), all regular member of the PFF proposed the following items to be included in the Agenda (annex “B”)of the PFF 5th Ordinary Congress, to wit: (1) ARBITRATION TRIBUNAL (2) DISCIPLINARY & APPEALS COMMITTEE (3) PFF DISCIPLINARY CODE. (4) THE REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT OF THE ACTING PRESIDENT, JOSE MARI C. MARTINEZ, (5) DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PFF LEGAL OFFICER IN CONJUCTION WITH THE EDWARD MAGALONA CASE IN WHICH MR. MARTINEZ FAILED TO TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION DESPITE FOLLOW UPS ON THE MATTER MADE BY FIFA, and PFF accepted those proposed agenda, (annex “B-1”) On February 6, 2009, the PFF sent out the Notice of the Agenda to member-associations which included, among others, the proposed items which were previously approved by PFF. (annex “B-2”)
However, during the Congress proper on February 24, 2009, several of the member-associations were stunned and appalled to discover that the Agenda was completely altered and all the proposed items including those aforementioned have been deleted. Instead, a document perceived by many to be highly irregular, was inserted in the individual folders of each member-association which contained the “revised” PFF 5th Congress Agenda which purportedly was approved by the majority of the Board of Governors (BOG) during the PFF Board of Governors Meeting held on February 22, 2009. When pressed for an explanation, Mr. Martinez offered none. (annex “B-3” & “B-4”)
Although the said document contained seven (7) signatures of BOG members (including that of the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Martinez) which constituted a majority approval, these signatures include that of Benguet FA representative who was absent during the said meeting. Withal, the irregular insertion of his signature is perceived to be a deceitful act intended to impose the will of Mr. Martinez to exclude the aforementioned items from the Agenda.
More perplexing is the fact that the other members of the BOG whose signatures do not appear on the document but were present during the BOG Meeting were not even aware of the said document. Thus, they strongly opposed revision of the previous Agenda sent on February 6, 2009 on two procedural grounds: (a) any revision of the Agenda should be upon prior approval of the member-associations present at the Ordinary Congress since the formal Notice of the Agenda has already been previously sent; and (b) the complete revision of the Agenda just a day and a half before the date of the Congress proper is in violation of Article 11, Section 6 in relation to Article , Section 1 of the PFF By Laws which read: (annex “B-5”)
“Article 11, Section 6. PFF CONGRESS: The PFF Congress shall be held on the last Saturday of November of every year. The notice for the PFF Congress or Extraordinary PFF Congress, and the Agenda shall be made in writing to the Members at least one month before the date of the Congress.
Article 8, Section 1. MEMBERS’ RIGHTS: The members in good standing have the right to know in advance the agenda of any general assembly/congress, to be called to the meeting within the prescribed time, to take part in the meeting and exercise their right to vote.” (Empahsis supplied)
All these, despite previous receipt by the PFF of the letter of the FIFA Legal Division Director Marco Villeger dated February 12, 2007 containing the FIFA Guidelines and Directives providing for the creation of the judicial bodies and internal arbitration tribunal (annex “C”). This now begs the query: “Why is the PFF leadership adverse to the convening of a judicial system and institution of the rules on procedure?” “Is it because they are scared of their own skeletons in the closet?”
Intrinsically related to the above issue is the PFF Circular of June 9, 2009 which was sent to coaches who were applying for the AFC B Certificate Coaching Course scheduled on July 5-25, 2009 and PFF Referees Course scheduled July 11-15,2009 nationwide (annex “C-1” & “C-2”). The Circular includes the Terms of Agreement set by the PFF , some of which are considered highly irregular, unreasonable and in total disregard of the PFF Charter and FIFA directives and guidelines, to wit:
“TERM #6. You agree to submit exclusively to the jurisdiction of the Advisory Board and not to attempt to resolve any dispute or grievance the subject matter of the PFF By-Laws in a court of law. “ (Emphasis supplied).
But based on the PFF By Laws, the PFF Advisory Committee function is largely advisory in nature and is therefore NOT vested with the jurisdiction to resolve issues arising from the said contract. We maintain that the Advisory Board or Committee cannot supplant the judicial bodies and the Arbitration Tribunal. However, there is none; thus, effectively leaving the coaches with no venue for redress in cases of violations. “Is this a ploy designed to enable the PFF to dictate their will on the coaches by dictating on their venues for redress?”

The absence of these venues which effectively deprives each stakeholder of the football community with his basic right to seek redress under due process of law, has resulted in the deep divide in the Philippine football family because of many unsettled issues and questionable decisions by the PFF. We posit that this is a continuing violation of both the FIFA rules and PFF By laws for which the PFF leadership should be held accountable for.

2. Below are actions of PFF which curtailed the rights of the members of Congress. On January 6, 2009, the PFF sent all member-associations a Notice setting January 31, 2009 as the deadline for submission of all proposed items in the Agenda for the PFF 5th Ordinary Congress )annex “D”). As aforementioned, the Agenda was completely altered and all proposed items were deleted during the Congress proper on February 24, 2009 and instead a document perceived was inserted in the individual folders of each member-association which contained the “revised” Agenda. Despite being the supreme body of the PFF, the Congress was completely bypassed in the revision of the Agenda by the PFF leadership which did not seek their approval in stark violation of Article 12, Section 2 in relation to Article 8, Section 2 (Members Rights to Information) of the PFF Charter which reads:
“Article 12, Section 2. PFF CHARTER: “Any proposal that a member that a member wishes to submit to the Ordinary Congress for addition to the agenda shall be sent to the general secretary in writing with a brief explanation, at least three weeks before the date of the Congress, the PFF Executive Council, in its advisory capacity, shall recommend to the President if the Item for addition to the agenda will be accepted.” (Emphasis supplied).
Also, on February 5, 2009, the PFF sent a Memorandum to all member-associations informing them that the PFF President had declared all PFF Committees’ chairmanship and membership vacant until further notice (annex “D-1”). The declaration was a unilateral and autocratic decision taken by Mr. Martinez which was without the needed concurrent approval of the Board - the timing of which was suspect as the Agenda of the 5th Ordinary Congress scheduled less than three weeks away called for all PFF Committee Reports to be presented.
The PFF general membership recognizes the extreme importance of the PFF Standing Committees from which decisions concerning the organization of local and national competitions and in general, the development of the sport in the country emanate from. Lamentably since 2007 when they assumed their office, the PFF has organized only one regional eliminations leading to the PFF Men’s National Championship. To date, the second leg of the national finals never pushed through despite being part of the PFF calendar of activities which approved by the BOG and widely circulated and disseminated. Other competitions were also planned but never took off and the Men’s National Championship was even abruptly discontinued without any official explanation.
Last June 28, 2009, the Laguna FA General Secretary requested the PFF General Secretary, Mr. Cyril Dofitas and PFF Administrator, Mr. Leo Arnaiz for the Calendar of Activities of the PFF for 2009 to streamline and coincide their local activities with that of PFF and other local Provincial FAs activities (annex “D-2”). Unfortunately, there was never a response or reaction coming from the PFF, similar to many previous correspondences which were completely ignored.

3. The PFF breached the employment contract with the coaches under the 2008 AFC AID 27 Program which was approved by AFC and duly signed by the PFF President and the coaches concerned. Last January 22, 2009, Mr. Mariano Araneta, PFF Technical Committee Chairman and Member of the PFF Board wrote the PFF President to inform him that several coaches employed under the Program have not received their salaries and a few, who were fortunate to be paid, have not been paid in full. (annex “E”, “E-1” & “E-2”) In a tenuous attempt to exculpate himself from any wrongdoing, the PFF President accused the coaches of not submitting their activity reports – a fact which was vehemently denied by the coaches and by Mr. Araneta (annex “E-3” & “E-4”). President Martinez would later on admit that the AFC AID 27 funds were diverted and claimed that it was with the blessing of the AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam (annex “E-5”). Even assuming gratis this is true, the BOG rightfully insists that the PFF is legally bound to remit the salaries of the coaches who have rendered their services as stipulated in their respective contracts, (annex “E-6”, “E-7”, “E-8”, “E-9” & “10”) and the PFF Financial Report for December 31, 2007 and 2008, stating that they have account payable to the PFF coaches (unpaid AFC Aid 27) (annex “E-11”)
Lamentably and in defiance of the Board’s decision, President Martinez continue to refuse to compensate in full the said coaches despite submission of their activity reports which incidentally, was not clearly stipulated in the Terms of Agreement of the contract as in the case of a Laguna FA coach who sent a demand letter threatening to take the matter to court – a fact again brought about by the lack of a judicial system. It was only then that President Martinez agreed to the terms of payment. There are many affected coaches who would like to take the same course of action but are hesitant in doing for fear of reprisal. This particular issue has brought about the resignation of several key officials in the PFF including the former PFF General Secretary, Pablito Araneta. (annex “E-11”).

4. The PFF exercises a dictatorial manner of governance in violation of the terms of fair play and non-observance of consensual decision-making; financial transparency and respect for the rule of law. To cite a few examples, to wit: the Congress, despite being the supreme body of Philippine Football, does not have a say in approving the yearly budget; the rights of members of Congress to propose items in the agenda for discussion and action are completely ignored; with the exception of a few who are directly involved in the administration of PFF, the vast majority of the stakeholders are clueless on the programs and activities with letter inquiries having been left unanswered; and the decision of the PFF to lease out a portion of the new PFF headquarters was arrived at without consultation with and approval from the Congress in violation of local corporate laws. (annex “F”)
Further, many of our very talented players from the provinces have been left out from the national team pool because for lack of funds to pay for their trips and related expenses, thus, leaving them discouraged. Cases in point are the recent AFC competitions wherein the composition of the National Ladies U19 & U16 teams could have been stronger with the possible inclusion of provincial players who were ultimately left out. Sad to admit but there is a pervasive perception that the national team slots are for sale to the detriment of equally deserving and talented players from the provinces (U16 Women’s Team Manager Report-annex “F-1”). Inspite the financial assistance from several international governing bodies including the AFC and FIFA, it is a pity that the PFF has not been able to properly fund these national teams and even asked the parents of the players to pay for their daughters expenses to be included in the team., (annex “F-2”), PFF issued a PFF original receipt to the parents but those contributions did not appear on the PFF Inflow and Outflow comparison of Budget, Actual and Variance as of February 20, 2009 given during the Congress (annex “F-3”). Attached is the letter of the parents (see annex “F-4”) which is requesting for a liquidation of expenses that was duly received by the PFF dated August 4, 2009 and to this day has not been acted upon.
Insofar as the PFF League Development Program for U11 & U13 Boys & Girls, there are 20 provincial football associations (FAs) who are to benefit from this program but 12 FAs were excluded without any explanation from the PFF. We maintain that it is the right of every member-association to participate in all PFF activities and programs. Considering that no criteria or requirements were sent to the different provincial FAs’ to serve as basis for their inclusion in the Program, this clearly demonstrates discrimination and favoritism. (annex “F-5”)
The PFF sanctioned several football officials even without a judicial system in place. A referee was suspended because he was unavailable to officiate despite the fact he never committed to officiate in the particular game. Although his suspension was later lifted, he had already served his illegal suspension (annex “F-6” & “F-7”)). Ironically, a PFF official was appointed to a position in the PFF despite the fact that an AD Hoc Committee created by President himself, has found the former guilty of two major offenses for an unserved suspension order for 18 months for attacking a team with a deadly weapon while he was the President of an FA; and overpricing of a second hand computer with an approved budget of Php50,000.00 for which FIFA funding for the Laguna FA Training Center were used. To date, the case has been dragging and the official’s appointment has sent a dangerous signal to member-associations. (annex “F-8” & “F-9”)
It is in this light that through your good Office, we hope to seek solutions to the current challenges that continue to deeply divide the Philippine football family and hamper the overall development of the game in the country. We therefore humbly request for a full investigation.

As the celebrations for the FIFA Fair Play Days are fast approaching, your immediate and favorable actions on these pressing issues which continue to hound Philippine Football is much anticipated and appreciated.

Yours in football,


Arturo Pacificador Jr.. PhD.
President
Laguna Football Association
Mobile No. + 639298553188
Email ad: junpacificador@yahoo.com
Address: Mathematics Department
De La Salle University
Taft Avenue, Manila City:



Ismael Batiles, Jr.
President
Cagayan de Oro-Misamis Oriental Football Association
Mobile No. +639188810888
Email ad: ismaeljrbatiles@yahoo.com
Address: Salon de France
Limketkai Mall
Cagayan de Oro City




Jay Adriatico
President
Oriental Mindoro Football Association
Mobile No. +639293493181
Email ad: c/o ronald_patulin@yahoo.com
Address: Nethsville Academy
Barangay San Rafael
Calapan City



Jose Vito Borromeo
President
National Capital Region Football Association
Mobile No. +639189164988
Email ad: joseborromeo@yahoo.com
&/or c/o paulinebsevilla@yahoo.com
Address: No. 845 S. Laurel St.
Barangay Addition Hills
Mandaluyong City



Atty. Juan Luis Carpio
President
Naga City-Camarines Sur Football Association
Mobile No. +639178146842
Email ad: anlucarpio@yahoo.com
Address: No. 20 Jacob Ext.
Liboton, Naga City