Homeless Azkals mired in politics on eve of semis

Flush from its best overseas showing in years, the Philippine football team didn’t use its first press conference back home to thank its fans for the sudden groundswell of support. Instead, the players dissed their mother organization, the Philippine Football Federation. They complained about their lack of training facilities. They talked about being insulted. Then they denied that their "laundry list of grievances" was a laundry list of grievances. In short, on the eve of its first semifinals match in the biennial ASEAN championships, the players – now popularly known by their self-styled nickname the Azkals -- used the spotlight to expose the political muck Philippine football has become.

The biggest disappointment of all is that the team will probably lose its chance to play in front of the home crowd in its crucial home-and-away series with Indonesia starting this Thursday. “There is the matter of the former PFF president telling ASEAN Football Federation officials that we, the national team, cannot have our own home game, that we fought so hard for, to be played in front of our countrymen," the team’s statement said last Wednesday. “What a wasted opportunity!" The target of the players’ wrath is Mari Martinez, the former or current head of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), depending on who is asked. In the days before the start early this month of the Suzuki Cup, the formal name of the ASEAN championships, Martinez was “impeached" for alleged unaccounted funds by the national congress of the PFF, which installed Mariano Araneta to replace him. Then the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), which provides the PFF US$250,000 annually to assist the development of football in the Philippines, refused to recognize the PFF’s change in leadership. “It is not clear whether the proposal of removing you has been put properly on the agenda of the Congress and we therefore cannot acknowledge at this stage the change of presidency," wrote Markis Kattner, the Zurich-based FIFA deputy secretary-general, in a letter to Martinez. Kattner then ordered the PFF to convene another congress within 90 days of his December 3 letter to decide on the fate of Martinez’s leadership, but this time with FIFA observers present. In an interview with GMANews.TV, Martinez countered the team’s charges by enumerating his various accomplishments on behalf of the team, including the idea to recruit foreign-born players with Filipino lineage. "I just copied it from my coach when I was playing for the national team 30 years ago," Martinez said. “When I was with the Philippine national team we had four Spanish players on our squad and we beat Thailand and Singapore back then." In the Suzuki Cup, all three goals were scored by British-born players, Christopher Greatwich and Phil Younghusband, and the 20-year-old Filipino-British goalkeeper Neil Etheridge was one of the outstanding players in the tournament. Martinez also insisted that he doesn’t deserve the blame for the absence of a home game in this month’s semifinals matches against Indonesia. "I really wanted the games to be played here, in front of the hometown crowd, and show to the world that we are a force to reckon with," he said. “We submitted PhilSports (Ultra), Rizal Memorial and Panaad to AFF (ASEAN Football Federation) as the possible venues but all three failed to meet the standards required for the Suzuki Cup." The Philippine venues were disqualified by the AFF for a lack of seating capacity and insufficient lighting. As for the missing PFF funds, he vowed to submit a full accounting. "We must have been doing something right. From 189 we went up to 151 in the FIFA rankings. And we have a chance to reach 140 or higher once the results of the Suzuki Cup are added," he said. “This is not done overnight, it was part of PFF's three-year plan." In its statement, the national team rejected Martinez’s claims of a role in its success: “While our triumphs on the football field and the glory we’ve attained are something we are sharing with every Filipino and football fan out there, taking credit for matters one did not do is something we do not condone." The politics of Philippine football is just one more hurdle for the Azkals, the Cinderella team of Southeast Asian football, as it prepares for its underdog role in front of tens of thousands of Indonesian fans in Jakarta. Vietnam has offered to host the Philippine team’s home games from now on just so both of its semifinals games are not played in Jakarta. A dilemma arises if both the Philippines and Vietnam make the finals. Vietnam, whom the Azkals upset in stunning fashion just over a week ago, 2-0, will then no longer be neutral ground, but another fiercely partisan venue for the visiting Azkals, yet another speed bump in the team’s vexing, exhilarating journey in 2010. – Jonathan Perez/Howie Severino, GMANews.TV