IN his speech during the opening of the 8th Cebu Interclub, PFF president Mari Martinez assured the new CebuFA officials of more aid.

Among the aid Martinez promised were coaching and referees courses exclusively for CebuFa.

“We will wait for the advise for the cebu fa, for the refree and the coaching to conduct here for three days,” Martinez said.

Once the new Aboitiz field is also up and running, Martinez also promised to have an international tournament in Cebu, involving the 40-above teams of Southeast Asian clubs and countries.

He also said that the AFC will have their experts go around the country to look at and eventually design grassroots development program which will be in line with Vision Asia.

POWERHOUSE Pinoysoccer.com flexed its muscle early and dumped FC Inter Lapu-Lapu, 20-0, in the first day of the 8th Cebu Inter club Men’s Open at the University of San Carlos Technological Center field yesterday.

With eight of its players named to the Cebu All-Stars, which lost 0-6 to the RP national team last Sunday, Pinoysoccer.com could have showed up minus a keeper, a defender or two to make yesterday’s game against Inter Lapu-Lapu more interesting.

Instead, the team, led by Oliver Colina, Eleazar Toledo, Lemar Baunsit and Kim Relucio among others, only needed 10 minutes to open the floodgates.

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The match that was more than two hours late was worth the wait.

In their first match in Cebu since the national team still donned the tight kits, the Azkals took Cebu’s best footballers to school, 6-0, in front of a sizeable crowd at the University of San Carlos-Technological Center.

Though he scored three of the six goals and had an assist on the first, Phil Younghusband showed a bit of rust in his first game in Cebu.  He went left, when a teammate passed right, he was two or three steps behind in some of the passes.

Arnie Pasenabo, who used to play for the Carmen Boys, also had a great game playing the provider from right flank, while another former Carmen boy, Julius Acre had the best chance among both teams from a free kick, with his shot just inches high.

Though they lost 6-0, the Cebu All Stars have nothing to be ashamed about, their defense managed to hold the RP team scoreless in the first 20 to 30 minutes, showing the RP team needs to fine-tune their offense and finishing touches for the AFC Challenge Cup.

The Cebu All Stars keeper was just a year off playing high school football in the Palarong Pambansa.

On the other hand, though the crowd showed their bias for the RP team, they also showed they don’t take shenanigans lightly.  After Oliver Colina beat Anton del Rosario with a nifty dribble, del Rosario sent Colina rolling with a hard tackle, earning a few boos from the crowd.

I didn’t get to see the second half action, owing to the late start of the match and the need to catch up with office works.  But here’s one thing I want.

I want more Azkals vs. Cebu All Stars friendlies in Cebu.

IF they can’t kill you with their schedule, it seems the Department of Education’s Palarong Pambansa is ready with another hired gun, “the officials.”

Region 7 coach Mario Ceniza was peeved when during a commotion, one of his defender, who was in the other side of the field got a yellow card.  His stress levels blew when during another commotion, that same player, who was again not involved, got another yellow card.

Afterwards, when Ceniza wanted to file a protest, not against the opposing team but against the official, he was told by the tournament manager, “we have the best referees in the Philippines.”

And of course, this tournament manager that has the best referees in the Philippines, got a bit of luck that Mimaropa failed to advance to the championship round. If the team was to do so and win it all, they would have played–thanks to the brilliance of the tournament manager who has the best referees in the country–six games in the final two days.

Davao, which lost to Cebu yesterday, had it easy, they only played four games in the last two days.

The high school team has just defeated Davao, 2-1, to advance to the finals against West Visayas.  Barring any hitches from the officials, this could be an interesting final.

The elementary squad will play NCR again in the final, a team they beat 4-1, in their early meeting. Cebu City got to the final after the Pampanga squad failed to show up.

I HOPE Pinoysoccer.com had it wrong (or had it incomplete) when they reported that PFF president Mari Martinez will severely punish collegiate teams who will join Charlie Cojuangco’s stupid tournament next month.

Why severely punish those who got invited to the bastard ball Mr. President, why don’t you go for those who is organizing the ball?

Collegiate teams, because of the lack of tournaments in the country, would grab any chance that would have them competing against the champions of the other areas, what with the failure of the PFF, or any organization for that matter, to have a tournament that pits the best teams in the country.

Why punish them?

Why not NOFA?  Why not punish Charlie, Mari?

The Charlie and Mari show.

Charlie, pissed that he is that Bacolod—the place where the national team should be playing—got left out in hosting the meet, wants to play spoil sport, not unlike that kindergarten KSP who would go out on his way to get noticed, soiled shorts be damned.

And, Martinez shows that he can’t be bullied and shows his power—that he can twist everyone’s elbow with his threat of a “severe sanction.”

Of course, we can ask ourselves a few questions.

Why can’t these two old farts work together?  With Charlie’s money and Martinez’s “twisting powers,” they can get a major network to air the games.

Instead, we get Charlie organizing a bastard tournament, and Mari threatening those who join that tournament.

For the good of football.

After victories up north, the Cebu International School dragons are inching their way down south, winning the Del Monte Football Cup against a familiar foe last April 12 in Bukidnon.

Coached by Eleazer Toledo, the boys defeated Don Bosco Technological Center, 3-2, in the final to take the Boys 12 title.

Here’s the report from Sun.Star

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In the business of sports, I coined the then infamous term of christianizing, the common practice when a reporter, who does his or her job, writes his or her stories, then only to have someone collect from the source, “You got your story, pay up (And no, this is not about DJ Montano, though he must pay up)

Or, during a coverage, when every reporter is supposed to submit a story, somebody goes to the event organizer and collects the payment “so the reporters will write a story.”

You’ve been christianized, I always told them, or in some instances, I or we say, “Na-christianize mi.”

There is another term I will introduce. It’s CHARLIED, and the honor goes to the president of NOFA.

NOFA, in all it’s brilliance and love for football for this country,  is organizing a tournament for the best collegiate teams–you know, the major source of players for the national teams–the same week the national team will be playing.

The PFF is about to get charlied and will be charlied because of Charlie Cojuangco.

And boy, it’s all for the love of the game, the charlie is, Pinoysoccer.com reported, “This is the launching tournament of what we envision to become an annual summer event,” Cojuangco, president of the Negros Occidental Football Association, said in a press release. “We hope to provide an avenue for our football community to come together, play, and on the whole, bond,“ he added.”

This launching tournament, I bet my left ball, wouldn’t be held if Iloilo didn’t get Bacolod’s job–to host the Asian Challenge Cup.

And I bet my right ball, that this annual tournament won’t be here next year, you know, because there are no more Challenge Cup that you can charlie.

Bacolod cried foul because they were left in the dark in the hosting job of the Challenge Cup, since they hosted the SEA Games and the AFF Qualifiers, that meant, they weren’t left in the dark then?

So get us out of the dark then and tell us where the P300,000 budget for the media go during the Challenge Cup, which NOFA co-hosted and which, you weren’t left out of the dark.

The figure, I got, from Bacolod.

During that Challenge Cup, I got invited to a media party, and they had this paper, knowing all the christianizing in the business, I didn’t want to sign anything, much less an attendance sheet.  But having that paper thrusted to me, twice and more, I got to sign it, it was for the raffles they say.

When I got to sign it, I was around No. 25 or higher, which got me to thinking, where were the 24 other reporters during the game (there were at most, six of us).  But the raffle proved  me right,  everybody  won, which showed they didn’t need our names since they already have it.  What they needed was our signatures.

All I hope is that I was able to down enough beer to get my share of the P300,000.

Cebu City stayed undefeated in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association for a return slot to the Palarong Pambansa.

The team, coach by Mario Ceniza, is now in Palawan to prepare for their hunt for the Palaro title. The games starts next week.

All pics courtesy of the Dr. JP (just click on the more button to view the pics)

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USJ-R lost in the semifinals of the Prisaa, the boys are in Palawan for the Palaro, which will start a week from now.

Uptwon FC is organizing a two-day festival at UP on April 19 and 20, the Inter Club wants to have a game between Cebu’s best and the RP team, Manfred Schuwerk is meeting with the Cebu referees on Monday.

And from the chat box, European Chamber is holding a festival at CIS.

That’s it for now, ever since I got this muscle strain, which limited my time at the keyboard, typing more than a few words has been tough.