Fair Play: CFA gets the ball rolling

(This is the draft of my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu on June 9)
SO the PFF has finally acted on the pending membership of the new CFA officers, more than two months after they got elected.


Even if that action was to tell the gen-sec to tell the membership committee to work on it, well, that’s still an improvement to the non-action of the previous two months, isn’t it?



There seems to be a concern that the PFF inaction could be due to who would occupy the BOG seat for Cebu—the former or is it the new president?—and along with the seat, who would he vote for in the PFF elections.


But it’s good to hear the CFA won’t be playing the political game and would be working for the good of Cebu football.  Besides, it’s kind of weird that no club, or individual, has come forward and said that he or they are protesting the results of the election.


It’s only the PFF that said that there’s a protest against Cebu, and they’re not even giving the officers the courtesy of informing them who’s against them.


Hmmmm.


But, sans recognition from the PFF, the board has already met twice and are mapping out plans for Cebu football and one of the immediate concern of course, is updating the list of stakeholders.  They won't let the PFF's failure to act on their membership hinder them.


Aside from the clubs and players, they will recognize all the referees, and organizers, too.  The referees are a fractured bunch and one group won’t be favored over the other and everyone, regardless of affiliation, will be recognized.  Referee courses and seminars will be open to all and appointments to national tourneys will be based on performance, not who you know.


For a group that’s just starting its mandate, I think that’s the best move of all. 


Another worthy plan of the group is about having tournaments sanctioned by the CFA.  Previously the only advantages of having your event sanctioned is that punishments may be carried over to other CFA-sanctioned tournaments and that you’d get a set of CFA-sanctioned refs.


They’re stepping up the ante.  They are planning to provide organizers the balls, goals, corner flags and the manpower to mark the lines if they have their tournament sanctioned.  As to the referees, this one’s a clincher.  Since the CFA will recognize all referees, organizers will be provided a list and it’s up to them to choose which one they want for their tournament.


So, getting to officiate in festivals will no longer be about who you know, but whether you’re known to be a good referee or not.  


Another plan of the group is to bring the prestige back to the Aboitiz Cup, which has been waning in years judging from the numerous forfeitures when teams opt for a festival than the Aboitiz Cup, which is wrong.


One way to help do that is set a flexible calendar with windows for the festivals—both in Cebu and the major events in Manila--just like how Fifa sets windows for international friendlies.  There are just four or five non-Aboitiz major footie events in Cebu, instead of barring teams from maximizing their participation in all tourneys, the CFA will be flexible.


Aside from that, the group is also planning to revive the planned ID system and if pushes through, teams won’t have to keep on attaching their birth certificates whenever they join tourneys as the only thing they need is an ID.


But now, that’s not a priority as the immediate concern is to identify who the members are of the CFA.


And one more noble thing.  


Right now, there’s a lot of questions regarding the new board. “Unsa naman balita tawun?” is one that’s often gets repeated and the board is planning to face the local stakeholders, as early as in two weeks’ time.


So, wait for the announcement.


It won’t be a general assembly, as the by-laws call for only one a year, but it would be a chance for the new board and local stakeholders to meet.


I hope, those who go there will drop that “how-will-I-benefit-from-this-new-setup” attitude because that has killed so many good officers.  Instead, they should adopt the “how-can-I-help-them-attitude.”


It’s about time, don’t you think?