The Philippine U23 football squad lost it's first two games in the 2011 SEAG competitions, first to Vietnam, and later to Timor Leste. At this point hopes of medals have been abandoned. It's one thing to lose and another thing to really lose. A team could lose a game and still not lose its pride. Our U23 team lost these games and with it their pride and ten times more the pride of the Filipino fans that follow them. They, the fans, still follow alright, it is absolutely madness not, but the whole SEAG affair is cultivating judgements never heard before. Although not to be characterized as divisive or destructive to Philippine football, these observations have in them a sense of urgency and a core message that declares love and deep concern for our football's future.
Whether we like it or not, in the bigger picture, lack of grassroots system and the absence of a decent football youth program at the national level by the PFF, is the essence of the causes for this past 2 games’ failure. Those who “like” the Azkals and football in general tend to only see things that are directly in front of them. The ones that “love” the sport see beyond just the image in front of them and feel the urgency to tackle reality in its rawest form. The minority of these two groups decided to tackle the reality and it is that the PFF is not doing a good job at making sure that the future of our football is secure; that there is no system set that provides conditions for our youth football players. Really,our country’s football following is delineated by these two groups. They’re not one and the same, but both are good for our football.
We all want to believe things have changed in the PFF. It’s under new management. Weather the new management have utilized a different approach to address mistakes done in the past, or are better prepared for the future than the previous ones, we don’t really know. Clearly when it comes to popularizing the game in our country they have indeed done a remarkable job. LA Galaxy with Becks and Donovan in December, whoa, if that doesn’t intensify more cravings among football fanatics and would-be football fanatics, I don’t know what else will. But when one takes the time to examine the past year’s journey of our football, it’s not hard to see that our PFF gods had failed to develop a system, particularly an efficient strategic approach to the growing football competition in Asia. Notice the word “efficient” and not mere “effective”.Recruitment of Filipinos living abroad is effective, but NOT efficient.Fielding Filipino foreign-based players with more experience than our local home-based players on the pitch is effective, but NOT efficient. Composing on the fly a motley of players from different points who barely had the chance to get to know each other or bond into what is fundamentally known as TEAM for a shot at major competition for flag and all that good stuff is effective, but NEVER efficient.
So you ask, why are fans and followers pointing the fingers at PFF? They had it coming from day one of new management when nothing was immediately drawn out to drastically address this problem of grassroots. Will we accept “it’s not that easy” as an excuse? No.Is it a complex thing to do? Yes, maybe. Is a creation of a blue-print for a grassroots football system for our youth so demanding it would take more than year to weave a general plan? Could be. Are there strong unseen forces preventing or influencing the creation of youth-system design? Ok, sure. Boy, have we got ourselves a long list of excuses?
Here’s a solution: ACTION!ACTION! ACTION! Put together a bunch of smart people and let them brainstorm a design. Task a study group to do a research on what other countries are doing with their football programs. Send people out there to look into these programs and copy/paste these programs into ours, then later adopt changes and make it our own. Liaise with football federations of other nations; send people to the moon, if that’s necessary. Find an attainable standard model that is flexible and more applicable to our needs.Turn that model inside out, decapitate it, break it apart, then put it back together. Develop. But more importantly, START the first step. Do something!
Funding is a problem, you’d say. Of course. “But where are we going to get the money for this?”. Classic. You’ll find a way PFF. You are already spending money. As a matter of fact, you have been spending HUGE amounts of money already. effectively or efficiently? Neither, nor. 90% of that money should be grassroots or youth development program, the others can fight for the 10%.
