Sinking ship

The resignation of businessman Jefferson Cheng as team manager of the national women’s football team is a major black eye for Philippine football.

With Cheng walking away, there is a big possibility the fabulous, history-making Filipinas will be disbanded. In fact, some of the staff members are mulling leaving as they do not know what awaits them under the new management team.

Cheng, who owns PAGSS, was a blessing to Philippine football.

Although the Philippine Football Federation is the richest among all national sports federations as it draws its funding and subsidies from the International Football Federation, Cheng still spent his own resources to finance the recruitment, training, and participation of the Filipinas in major international events.

Those in the know said that for the Filipinas alone, Cheng spent quite a fortune last year just to express his passion for Philippine football.

With Cheng as their benefactor, the Filipinas made history.

He hired a world-class coach in Alen Stajcic and assembled a team composed of the best players from various parts of the world like Sarina Bolden, Sara Eggesvik and Olivia McDaniel, Hali Long and Angela Beard.

They advanced to the semifinals of the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup which led to their historic appearance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

But a year after Sarina Bolden’s goal that awakened the world to Philippine football, Cheng tendered his resignation, saying the unworkable situation within the PFF had made it hard for him to continue fulfilling the very important role.

Insiders said that since John Gutierrez took over the PFF leadership from the well-loved and well-respected Mariano “Nonong” Araneta late last year, things were no longer the same in the women’s national team program and the federation in general.

Within the federation, more than a dozen officials resigned. Worse, these executives held key positions in the legal, media, events and club licensing, and international relations departments, making their departure crucial to the success of the federation.

Some of Cheng’s ideas were also put on hold for no apparent reason, prompting him to entertain the thought that he was being booted out of his role as chief benefactor of the team.

Things came to a head when the federation declined to stage the ID Camps in the United States as well as the training camp and an international friendly match that would take place during the Olympic window.

Through secretary general Angelico Mercader, the federation said the activities did not have the approval of the PFF. And should they want to seek approval, they should inform the federation 30 days prior.

With that, the federation had placed all of Cheng’s program on hold until his management team formally sat down with the PFF chief.

Clearly, the new PFF leadership is power-tripping. It wanted Cheng — a respectable businessman who has spent a lot for the national team program the past eight years — to toe the line and kneel before the new PFF chief.

But this shouldn’t have been the case.

With the Philippine Sports Commission having a hard time dividing its very small financial pie among all the national sports federations, private sponsors like Cheng should be treated gently because they are the ones digging into their own pockets to help national athletes bring pride and glory to the country.

In basketball, the biggest benefactor is also the chairman emeritus of the federation. The same goes for the other national federations like athletics, boxing, badminton, and golf.

In short, he who holds the purse should have the power, especially in a very high profile and expensive sport like football.

But apparently, the new PFF leadership didn’t know this — unless they already had somebody in mind who could replace the generosity and management style of Cheng. Good for them, if that’s the case.

It’s really sad to see Cheng go.

But this incident should serve as a lesson to the new PFF leadership that being in power doesn’t give you the right to treat people poorly, especially a sponsor.

Everyone is jumping out of the federation as if it is a sinking ship. It’s time for the captain — Gutierrez — to wake up before it’s too late.