Cebu Football

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept 24. edition) IF there’s one solid reason there is a need to revamp the whole leadership in the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association, their group’s conduct on the Maxime Rooney affair is it. If what the future Olympian’s father said is true, then our swimming officials just turned down our best chance to win an Olympic gold for reasons know only to them.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 23 edition) WHILE the Cebu media community is celebrating its Press Freedom week, there's an interesting issue brewing in Manila--a sportswriter was banned from all PBA activities for his actions on social media. It all started when a model-slash-round-girl confessed about having an affair with a PBA exec in a radio show, the writer picked it up and then interviewed the host is in his own radio show. He also dealt about the matter in social media, where he supposedly maligned the concerned official.

(This is my Fair Play column for SunStar Cebu's Sept. 21 edition) AT the end of the first round of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. college football season, defending champion University of San Carlos was at the bottom of the heap, with two points to show in four matches. They lost to the University of San Jose-Recoletos and the University of the Visayas and struggled to earn a point against the University of Cebu and the University of Southern Philippines. But in the second round, USC finally showed why it is the defending champions with wins over the top two teams—2-1 against USJ-R and 3-0 against the University of Cebu—rekindling its title defense alive.

(This is my Fair Play column for SunStar Cebu's Sept. 19 edition) IT’S great that Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy is open to the idea of adding bowling in the school league. However, the Commissioner set a series of requirements that would test the resolve of the bowling community. Though hard, the requirements are not insurmountable, and overcoming them could mean a smooth-sailing entry for the sport in the school league.

(This is my Fair Play column for SunStar Cebu's Sept. 17 edition) FOUR years after it was first announced in Cebu, the P80 million dalliance of Smart in Philippine football gets another reincarnation as a national U22 amateur championships this time around. First, Smart wanted a league, with provincial teams competing against each other. Of course, the UFL was already at its height, so it became a de-facto reincartion of the PFF men’s open of yester-years. When it became an extension of the UFL and the pro teams made it their playground, there was discontent from the provincial FAs. This P80 million tournament was supposed to be for Philippine football, not the UFL.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept 16 edition) WINNING the overall title in a multi-event meet isn't easy. Just ask the Central Visayas delegation in the Palarong Pambansa, where it has taken up long-term residence at fourth place. Winning the overall title in a multi-event meet when you're a visiting team is an even harder feat. For the Palaro, the NCR regularly does that every year, but that's because being the National Capital Region, it has a wider base of athletes to choose from, and these athletes are better than most.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 14 edition) CEBU teams have dominated the football competition in the previous editions of the Milo Little Olympics Visayas elimination because while it was Visayas-wide event, it was rare for out-of-town teams to send in their football squads to the meet held in Cebu in its first 19 years. There were one or two visitors from Iloilo and Bacolod in the last two or three years, but a single entry in a year couldn’t really break the stronghold of the Cebuanos.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 12 edition ) FANS had barely settled on their seats, or drinks, last Tuesday when the Philippines found itself a goal down against Uzbekistan in the World Cup qualifiers last Tuesday. The shock on the faces of the fans in the sports bar I was in was obvious. One, who was watching with his family, asked me the obvious question, “ Sulod to ?”

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 10 edition) IT was far from over yet fans of Don Bosco Technological Center were already anticipating the final whistle and started massing up at the track oval. They knew it was coming. They were waiting. But, on the pitch, the young Ateneo de Cebu squad was giving it all for a final push. And if not for an error in judgment by keeper Ralph Macam, who pulled a couple of brilliant saves, the Magis Eagles could have made the outcome in doubt right before the final whistle.

(Here's an opinion piece I wrote for our home match against Uzbekistan tonight.) The Philippines will take on dangerous Uzbekistan in a crucial round of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and the biggest concern for some--at least for me--is whether the crowd that will show in the game would be enough to make the home game a home game. Gone are the days of off-field drama, of player unavailabilty and of uncertainties.  Now, we got our best possible team available and we no longer rely on luck in getting  past the teams that outrank as by more than the total difference of ages of the opposing team's and our backline.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 7 edition) THERE are fun runs and then there are runs that are fun and I wonder where the recent Black Light Run held at the South Road Properties would belong. For sure the organizers and participants will have a different assessment from those caught in traffic by the road closure last Saturday and for them, it wasn’t fun at all. To be honest, I paid scant attention to the event as it was just one of the many scheduled for the weekend, but I did remember that it was quite a special case because for a 10K event, the organizers managed to have half the South Road Properties closed for a few hours.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 5 edition) HOW quickly time flies. Just like that, we are now on the fourth edition of the Sun.Star Football Festival, which will be on Nov. 21 and 22 at the Cebu City Sports Center. It seemed only last year when we had the first one, and now we are on our fourth edition.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 3 edition) HERE’S something a bit ironic, bowling is the only sport where we won an Olympic gold medal, but we don’t have bowling in any of our school leagues, Palarong Pambansa or even in the meets organized by the sports bodies. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Arianne Cerdeña won the gold when bowling was a demo sport and of course, we all know who the legendary Paeng Nepomuceno is. They are but two of the many world-class bowlers from the Philippines and that we have so many shows how good we are at the sport despite its absence in the school leagues or other meets, the usual breeding ground for Olympians or national team players.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Sept. 2 edition) I FINALLY had a chance to see the template the Philippine Football Federation sent to the local provincial football associations that they must follow inline with the changes mandated by Fifa in Philippine football. There are a lot of changes actually and if the CFA adopts them all, the way it operates will be a whole lot different from what we are used to. From the board composition, to membership, to the election.