Phl football in chaos

Philippine football has — once again — been rocked by a disturbing development after a key official stepped down from the Philippine Football Federation (PFF).

Freddy Gonzalez is no ordinary football executive. He is considered an asset to the PFF not just for being the nephew of industrialist Enrique Razon, who can help in the development of the sport, but also for his wisdom and experience as a former member of the men’s national football team.

As director for national football teams, Gonzalez was given the very crucial job of identifying and recruiting talents regardless of where they hailed from — for as long as they had a drop of Filipino blood running through their veins.

Gonzalez’s hard work yielded very positive results. He was able to recruit topnotch Fil-foreign players like Randy Schneider, Bjorn Kristensen, and Gerrit Holtmann, aside from national coaches Tom Saintfiet of Belgium and Albert Capellas of Spain.

The future of Philippine football definitely looked bright with Gonzalez in charge.

Yet, in a shocking development, Gonzalez tendered his resignation.

Those in the know said there was a “misalignment” in the management styles of Gonzalez and of PFF president John Gutierrez. While the former preferred to put the “strongest team on the pitch” regardless of their roots, the latter wanted only pure Filipino players.

Gonzalez knew that while tapping purely local talents sounded ideal and nationalistic, the national team would definitely have a hard time translating that into actual victories as football in the country isn’t as big as, say, basketball or volleyball in terms of popularity and talent pool.

After all, the country achieved some measure of success when the men’s squad paraded the likes of half-Filipinos in Neil Etheridge, Phil and James Younghusband and Stephan Schrock and the women’s team fielded Sarina Bolden, Olivia and Chandler McDaniel and Sara Eggesvik.

By the looks of it, Gonzalez walked away because he no longer felt he had the trust and confidence of his superior. For an executive as distinguished and as decorated as Gonzalez, resigning is the best thing to do if your boss is doubting your ability to make crucial decisions in fulfilling your duty.

But Gonzalez’s resignation was not an isolated case.

Prior to his departure, a handful of resignation letters from high-profile executives and federation employees reached the desk of Gutierrez — all saying that they were no longer happy with his management style.

Azkals team manager Dan Palami was the first to leave, followed by Filipinas team manager Jefferson Cheng. Early this year, Pinay5 team manager Danny Moran also stepped away — a heartbreaking development that happened in the wake of Gutierrez’s decision to pull prized Dutch mentor Vic Hermans from the team that was preparing for the country’s hosting of the FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup.

In short, Gonzalez is not the problem — Gutierrez is.

What’s happening to the PFF? What used to be a model national sports association that was even cited by the esteemed Philippine Sportswriters Association during the term of Gutierrez’s predecessor, Mariano “Nonong” Araneta, appears to be in decline with key executives jumping out like rats from a sinking ship.

The chaos in the PFF has to stop. If Gutierrez can’t put his house in order, the federation’s board of directors and other stakeholders should step in to address the nagging issues. And if nothing happens, maybe the PFF’s mother organization — the Philippine Olympic Committee — can mediate to put an end to this madness in Philippine football.

It’s not yet too late. But they have to do it as soon as possible before another resignation letter from another ranking official lands on Gutierrez’s desk.