Fair Play: ABS CBN and Mark Hartmann

(I'm posting a draft of my Fair Play column, thanks to Mark Hartmann)


AT 9:30 last Friday, a few football fans in Cebu were gathered at the Azkals Sports Bar and Grill, for what was supposed to be the start of the delayed telecast of the Philippines vs. Hong Kong match in the Long Teng Cup.

But, unfortunately fans had to wait some more. After having to rely on tweets to get updates of a football match that should have been aired live, football fans had to go through 30 minutes of mindless football analysis of a delayed telecast!

Sucks doesn’t it?

Commercialization? I think so. ABS CBN can’t cram all its advertisement in the 15-minute break between halves, so it had to have, of course, the 30-minute pre-match hoopla of a match that was over. A match that we all know the score, who scored, how and heck, what the new players even look like.

But still, despite all the analysh*t, the fans in the Azkal Sports Bar and Grill, and, I’m sure, at the National Sports Grill had fun watching a delayed telecast as if it was a replay live match.

Never have I seen or heard fans scream louder on goals that we all knew would come—that second-minute goal by Hong Kong, and the one that followed.

Fans said, “Kaya pa na! Tabla na!”  And I think it was the only time when whatever the fans said would happen, happened.

ABS CBN, of course, could have shown the match live. They have Studio 23 and Balls TV for crying out loud. Balls TV, according to the ever vocal Jaron Genota, was showing a replay of a golf tournament. A replay!

In a time when interest in football is at an all-time high, ABS CBN didn’t air the Philippines vs. Hong Kong match, live?  Why couldn’t they?

Last time I checked, ABS CBN was still proudly advertising being the official broadcast partner of the Azkals, which don’t have that many games in a year.

So I hope, last Friday’s game was the last time that fans would have to rely on tweets to get updates because relying on tweets to get updates should be best reserved, for, I don’t know, showbiz stuffs? Not for Philippine football matches.
(I wanted to stretch the "message" but this is when I read Mark Hartmann's tweet--ML.)

MARK’S MARK. While I love to get tweets from fellow football fans, some of whom are in Taiwan for the Long Teng Cup, there was one one disturbing tweet from Mark Hartmann that stirred a ruckus.

The Filipino-British player, whose hasn’t even scored a goal, much less a name in the international stage is whining that his stint in the Long Teng Cup is a waste of time because he isn’t starting.

“Not starting again! Someone get me on the next flight home #wasteoftime!” The soon-to-be-former-Azkal-tweeted.

Naturally, a nice diplomatic tweet like that gets a lot of reply, so when I promised to pledge P100 for his plane ticket back home? (Milk’s pretty expensive.)

One fan promised P1,000 and another pledged P3,000 to bring his ungrateful butt home.

Sure, players should have social media lives, but come on! When you put on that uniform, you should have some semblance of responsibility and what does it tell the local players who have strived hard to just be in the training pool only to be cut?


Here’s this guy, who made the team but thinks it’s a waste of time because he isn’t starting?

Things like these only fuel the argument from critics that the Azkals are nothing but a bunch of pa-pogi whiners who are after a good time.

This also reminds me of a suggestion to have all the Azkals undergo a seminar on what they can or cannot say online as this wasn’t the first time that a tweet got a player in trouble.

A seminar is good but I say players like Mark Hartmann should remember one thing, they may have raised the profile of football in this country but they haven’t done shit yet.

Fans have stuck with the team, through the bad times and the great times and if Mark Hartmann thinks it’s a waste of time?

Good riddance!