Daily Tribune‘I don’t want to play for our country anymore because the PFF now is very disorganized and chaotic.’
Isabella Bandoja and other players are stepping down from the national women’s futsal team due to the apparent unfair treatment of the Philippine Football Federation.
Photograph COURTESY OF PFF
The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is facing yet another red card as key members of the national team tendered their resignations with less than a year before the country hosts the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup in November.
Team captain Isabella Bandoja, Demelyn Rollon, Lanie Ortillo and Mykaella Abeto issued their respective resignation letters on Thursday following the federation’s apparent attempt to ease them out of the national team.
The four players are regarded as the best in the team with Bandoja bagging the Golden Boot award in PFF Women’s League in 2023 after racking up 19 goals for Tuloy Football Club. Recently, she was given a call-up by the PFF to join the women’s football squad.
Bandoja and other players, however, cried foul after the federation made a shocking decision to suddenly call for a training camp at the height of the busy holiday season from 26 to 30 December in preparation for the AFC Women’s Futsal Qualification in Uzbekistan from 11 to 19 January. The submission of the roster for the Uzbekistan tourney is set on 31 December.
The federation said those who will not show up in the hastily-called training camp will be dismissed while national team coach in Dutch Vic Hermans, who built the squad from ground up for the past three years, was suddenly relieved of his role and was re-aligned to the men’s squad.
With some national team members failing to show up in the camp, which was arranged only a few days prior with no definite venue, and their coach sacked, Bandoja and his teammates felt the need to resign, thinking that the federation already has a team that will see action in the qualifiers and, possibly, the World Cup.
Sources claim that those whom the federation is grooming to replace the seasoned players are futsal newbies who used to play outdoor competition.
“Of course, I wouldn’t accept any offer from them if some of my teammates will not be included in the team. I am thinking for all of us, not just for myself,” said one of the resigned players, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I cannot join the team if they will replace the players with those who don’t even have futsal background. How can the team perform if we only have one week to prepare with a new coach and now one knows what his background is? The new players will also have a hard time playing futsal, especially with only one week to prepare as they have been playing football all along.”
Easing out an established national team is nothing new in the PFF, which is now headed by John Gutierrez.
Last June, the team manager of the national women’s football team in businessman Jefferson Cheng also stepped down a year after leading the squad to a historic appearance in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Cheng resigned as team manager and chief benefactor of the squad after some of his programs were either replaced or put on hold by the new PFF administration.
His decision to walk away put the federation in disarray as some staff and players resigned on top of the 14 federation staff who stepped down in Gutierrez’s first six months in office.
DAILY TRIBUNE tried but Gutierrez couldn’t be reached for comment.
In her statement, another player admitted that the situation in the federation has been “very disorganized and chaotic.”
“The reason why I am not attending the PFF training camp is because it’s not coach Vic, who has been my coach for three years,” said the lady booter, adding that their original plan is to train with Hermans starting 4 January until the PFF issued a memo that asks them to train at the height of the holiday season.
“I don’t want to play for our country anymore because the PFF now is very disorganized and chaotic.”
The Pinay5 are coming off a fruitless stit in the ASEAN Futsal Championship last November but have shown signs of improvement and are expected to make huge strides this year heading into the World Cup that is set from 21 November to 7 December at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
