YES, you read it right. This is no typo error and you read it here first. 

The match is still three months away, but judging from the texts in the sports forum, it’s three months too late. 

So what better way to end the speculation than to publish results of the fight, now? This way, I can also up the ante against sports analysts. They predict. I report. 

So, like any modern-day quest for information, I scoured the Internet. And after hours of googling, I finally found this curious little website, www.futuresultsnow.com. 

(more…)

(from http://sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2008/09/10/sports/limpag.spare.the.kids.html)

ALAS sais na is one of the most unique phrases of encouragement or slogans in local sports and is a signature call of Francis Ramirez and the Abellana National School (ANS) boys. 

“It means to hustle,” Ramirez once explained to me while I was still handling the football beat. 

At the Cebu City Sports Center, ANS is only allowed to practice until 6 p.m., before the bulk of the joggers take to the oval for their nightly exercise ritual. 

A bunch of boys, football, and joggers don’t mix, hence the 6 p.m. limit. 

Alais sais na means to give everything before the final whistle. 

And ANS players, like most of the top teams in Cebu, do give their all in the crucial stretch. 

However, for the rest of the year, ANS will have no need to hustle anymore after the team, and their coach, was ordered suspended by Mayor Tomas Osmeña for not asking permission from the Department of Education when they joined the Philippine Olympic Festival and for representing Cebu Province. 

Ramirez and the ANS principal has since admitted their mistake, though I think the coach was quite creative in explaining the oversight—he couldn’t have known on the eve of the event that he was to represent Cebu Province when the team already had Ciudad de Cebu as its sponsor—he did right by asking that the kids be spared from the suspension. 

Kids shouldn’t suffer for other people’s mistakes. 

Players play where the coach tells them to play, even more footballers. With the lack of tournaments, the question footballers ask is “why are we not playing in this tournament?” and not “why are we playing?” 

ANS will miss the Cebu City Olympics and with that, any dreams of Cebu—not just the city—winning the secondary title in the Palarong Pambansa is dented. 

Even if ANS won’t win the Cebu City OIympics title, some of the players are virtual shoo-ins as reinforcements for the champion. 

Unless a team is from Barotac, no reinforcement-free school has the chance to win the Palarong Pambansa title. But with ANS’ suspension, the pool of players the Cebu City champion team gets to choose just got a little bit shallower. 

The bigwigs at DepEd Cebu City, instead of showing up only in the opening ceremonies of sporting events to give their speeches—which nobody really listens to save for reporters—should show up in championship matches to see first hand what drives athletes like ANS to go that extra mile after a simple phrase like, “Alas sais na!” 

Ramirez’s suspension also puts the Cebu Football Association in an interesting position, not one any organization would envy. 

The suspension was only for DepEd-sanctioned meets, and since the Cebu City Olympics and the Milo Olympics, have never recognized its authority, CebuFA could not honor that suspension. 

Or it could show leniency by allowing the players, but not the coach, to play in their tournaments. 

But that means going against Mayor Tomas Osmeña. 

And that isn’t something a group of private individuals can take lightly. 

***

In case you are wondering what I am doing in these pages, I regret to inform you, that, I’d be here regularly from now on. (Feel free to embellish—or enhance if you will—the picture, my preferred add-ons are a pirate’s eye patch and a curling pencil moustache.) 

Thanks to Atty. Pachico A. Seares, the Editor-in-Chief of the paper, for allowing me to join noted columnists John Z. Pages, (he digs Maria Sharapova too) Jingo Quijano (a lawyer with a great right hook, deadly combination), Karlon N. Rama, Edgar Chiongbian, Boy Pestaño and Noel S. Villaflor (If he ever finds his way back to a PC and resume his column). 

(mikelimpag@gmail.com) 

Things are looking good for the Cebu teams in the POF with thier victories over the other favorites in the Visayas Eliminations.

That is, until 3 p.m. today. July 26.

Both teams, mentored by Mario Ceniza and Francis Ramirez, will face off with each other again, in a rematch of the Cebu Inter Club finals just a few months ago.

I’ve been remissed in updating with the football scene and a cursory check at pinoysoccer.com and an insider’s take on local developments makes me feel justified in leaving the scene.

A hurriedly-patched together Philippine Premier League for Manila teams to be launched together with Sepp Blatter’s visit?  Another resignation, and a threat of suits in the PFF?  A coup of sorts in San Roque?

What gives?

We’ve all been caught in a traffic jam, once or twice a day, and wished why won’t anybody obey the rules of the road? Why can’t red mean stop once in awhile.

We’ve all had our say, and sometimes, we took that just little bit of leeway to gain an inch, deny another motorist. Or sometimes, we cheered while the driver finally decided to beat the red light, or drive the opposite lane (I know I did).

We’ve had our say.

We’ve all been in this situation before. Once or twice a tournament, we curse the imbeciles of our FAs. They should do this, they should do that. Why are they doing that?

We’ve had our say.

Now is the time to “have our act.”

It’s called The Project.

Donate. Give. Act. Do.

Whatever you can.

It’s not simply about money. I don’t have any. You’ve got books, DVDs, used spikes, magazines—anything football.

If you don’t have any of these, don’t fret. If you’re good with computer skills, go check out all the Philippine football videos at youtube, edit it, put it in one DVD. Some kid in a barrio not far away will see that video and promise to himself, “Someday, I will be in that video.”

This is about DOING something.

If you don’t have such skills, fret no more, go tell your friends, spread the news.

Act. Do.

For when the time comes when you get asked what have you done for Philippine football, at least…saying you’ve answered all questions, posts in anything related to Philippine football in all the internet forums won’t be the first thing in your mind.

The Associated Press ran a story today, about Argentina solidifying its hold of the top spot of the Coca Cola World Rankings over Brazil.

Then at the bottom part of the story, it mentioned, this month’s biggest jumper is the Philippines, up 19 places to 170.

To be honest, I looked a bit like a crazy dude to be raising his arms, like Rocky, in a quite newsroom, while whispering Yes!

Philippine football’s presence, in the internet, was pretty much as rare as football’s presence in Philippine media.

Then Philfootball.info came along and gathered the fans.  The site was basically just a forum, a place where fans gather. The influence of that forum shall forever be felt with the name Azkals, as it was in that forum that the name was coined.

Then Pinoysoccer.com came along.  The site gave and continues to give what Philfootball.info lacked, football news, columns, updates and of course—the forum.

It can’t be denied that Philippine football is growing, the national team is finding success in the international arena, we are the whipping boys of Southeast Asia no more.

Thanks to the Fil-foreigners.  Thanks to the fans, thank to THE fan.

For it was THE fan, as the story goes, who “discovered” the Younghusbands of Chelsea, from of all things, a PC game. That fan alerted the PFF and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.

That fan and others like him, is what define Pinoy football and Pinoysoccer.com.

They are hungry for news and updates, the recent crash of the website during the Asian Challenge Cup shows that hunger.

However, the website is experiencing new territory.

The previous administration simply ignored the site. That’s nothing new.

However, the current administration seems determined to ignore the site, and worse, wants Pinoysoccer.com to feel it is being ignored.

If the president was pissed because of the April Fools’ Joke then he should be prepared to deal with the fans’ reaction to his actions.  The April Fools’ Joke revealed the fool and the joke.

The president can ignore the fans for as long as he wants, after all, he can buy all the space that he can in the papers to proclaim his empty achievements.

But one thing he may have forgotten.

Azkals live and thrive without attention.

Kick ‘em.

Shoo ‘em.

Hit ‘em.

They still thrive.

And sometimes, just sometimes, they bite when least expected.

After a year’s absence, the Aboitiz Cup will be back, or so said the new CebuFA board.

Good news is, the new board will retain the two divisions for the Men’s Open, while there will be new age groups for Girls Football.

Now the question is, with the recent reshuffling of the teams in the Men’s Open, how will they determine which one gets to play in which division?

Also, this year, the CebuFA will finally take on the registration of individuals for its database.

But this P100 per head is sure going to raise a lot of questions (at least I will).

I may be wrong but there could be at least, a thousand players (more if we consider all the individuals involved in football) in Cebu where does the money go?

As to these database. I’m not such a big fan with how the CebuFA handled the data in their first tournament (Yes the Inter Club was officially a Queen City-organized event, but it still WAS a CebuFA event), will this new database be anything different?

Will these be just scraps or pieces of papers, tucked in a folder and left to rot until the next registration phase? Or

will this be a real database, where anyone who wants to question that “data of a certain player or individual” can access?

We’ll see.

And finally. I asked Richard whether the CebuFA will ever consider putting up a website, they said yes. I hope that happens sooner rather than later.

Putting this database on the CebuFA website, which anyone can access, sounds like a swell idea don’t you think?

With the lack of tournaments in Cebu ( a weekend without football is a weekend wasted), we should be thankful for the groups, clubs and schools who organize their own football tournaments.

However, one downside of this is the common complaints of people who say the organizers swing a certain way.

Now, I generally do not pay attention to questions on referee’s bias, vis-à-vis the organizers, but saying “A tournament started by a DB affiliate is in favor of DB teams. All officials and tournament heads are biased to DB. They give high priority to DB teams and give low priority to other teams,” is quite something.

Of course, here in Cebu, you can replace the initials “DB” with Queen City, SRFC, CebuFA directors,…etc..in the previous statement.

Every referee is biased, based on which side of the fence you sit.  And as a little Ripley-believe-it-or-not, during the break between the eliminations and the semifinals of a national open, I spent a few hours enriching SMC with the referees, and they all said that “the host could have gotten a few calls their way if they just managed to treat the referees better.”

Now as to the organizer’s bias.  Did the organizer say, put the good teams in one group and put in their team in a weak group?  Did they, say in a single-knockout tournament, make the better teams face each other before the winner faces their team in the same day?

If I am wrong, do say so but as a general rule, people organize football tournaments to 1.) promote their product, 2.) support their place’s fiesta, 3.) promote their school.  But I haven’t met an organizer who put up a tournament so their team will emerge as champion.  It’s silly and counterproductive.

All this, reminds me of my football years.

Lousy organizers?  Lousy referees?  One time, after warming up, both our team and our opponents spent two hours waiting for the referee.  He arrived, alone.  Since he didn’t have any linesman, me and another opposing team’s benchwarmer had the dubious honor, of not only not suiting up for the game, but being the linesman, with only a jersey and a shirt to use as a flag.

Check the first report regarding the Charlie Cojuangco Cup. (Yep that failed charlie by Charlie)

http://pinoysoccer.com/philippine-football/fu-drubs-um-in-1st-coc-cup-bootfest-opener.html

“Organizers, led by former 4th district Representative Carlos O. Cojuangco, held a press conference before Monday’s CPU-USLS match at the Panaad media center, together with visiting Spanish coach Maur Rozen, match commissioner Leo Dayot and referees inspector Dennis Estaniel.”

Nothing about the press conference?  Usually, when things like this occur, it usually means that during the press conference, nothing substantial was said about the event.  Reporters usually say (What the hell am I going to write) if they attend a football press conference that turns into a critique about why the Philippines should adopt the Federal system.

“He added that both UAAP titlist Far Eastern University and NCAA reigning champion San Beda College were also invited but failed to beat the deadline for confirmation, while reigning Nopsscea champion West Negros College was also invited but had to forego participation in favor of its stint in the National Prisaa meet in Zamboanga City where they were the defending champion.”

Booho, failed to beat the deadline? Or did they not bother to respond to the invitation.  Imagine that, the reigning Bacolod collegiate champion decided to forego the competition in favor of the Prisaa.  Hello?  The Prisaa was over a month ago!

I’ll jump the gun.

PFF president Mari Martinez has abandoned his plan to change the moniker Azkals, but upon reading the story of how the team got its name, he said, “That guy again!” when he got to the bottom part.

To quote Alain at pinoysoccer.com, “And from what I’ve heard, Martinez is still fuming about the April fools joke.”

Coach Norman won’t be back at the team, tired as he is with all the interference.  The PFF will finally put its own website, (I’m curious what news will be in that site.)  For a change, the Pinoys will travel to England to train with the Fil-Brits and as to the brouhaha about Phil Younghusband’s failed signing with the LA Galaxy, well with David Beckham getting the lion share of the payroll, someone else is bound to get the ant’s share–no, the parasite of the ant’s share–of the payroll. 287 dollars a week to play football?

And oh, the pinoysoccer.com community share the same idea with the PFF president with regards to a certain bald guy, at least, when no one else is listening.  The words used were, “He’s very difficult to deal with.”

Catch all the details at pinoysoccer.com.