PBA governor cries foul over 'touch fouls'

MANILA, Philippines - Does the new set of PBA officiating rules make the game more exciting or does it only take away the fluidity of the game?

A league governor said majority of team owners and governors are not happy with the rules, and he intends to raise it during the PBA board planning session slated at the end of the month.

The governor is even thinking on calling on the board to look for new officials to replace referees’ supervisor Ramil Cruz and technical consultant Romy Guevarra.

“I will certainly bring it up (removal of Cruz and Guevarra) once we hold our board meeting. They take away the beauty of the game because of these ‘touch fouls,’” said the governor who asked not to be identified.

Vice chairman Lito Alvarez was not surprised to hear the governor’s tirade, saying he’s aware many have objections to the new rules.

“I have talked with Romy Guevarra and asked him why this new rule. He said they have discussed this with the coaches and this is to improve the pace of the game,” said Alvarez.

The PBA board member said he has already talked with other fellow officials and majority are against the introduction of the new set of rules governing fouls.

Basically, the new rules disallow any hand check or a touch by a defensive player that would impede the movement of the offensive player.

This is a drastic change from the virtual “no harm, no foul rule” enforced the previous season wherein players were allowed rough contacts but with certain limitations.

Because of the touch fouls, zone has become the normal kind of defense in the league in the current Fiesta Conference.

To back up his claims, the governor singled out the San Miguel-Alaska game last March 4, ending with seven players fouling out, including Alaska import Galen Young.

Young fouled out in each of the three games he played before being replaced by Rosell Ellis.

Meanwhile, the PBA is now looking to make adjustments on its schedule after finally informed of the resetting of the SEABA championship on June 6-10 in Medan, Indonesia.

The PBA had earlier freed up March 1-6 from the Fiesta Cup schedule, this being the original schedule of the SEABA tourney which is the regional elimination for the Fiba-Asia championship set Aug. 6-16 in Tianjin, China.

In between the SEABA and Fiba-Asia jousts, the Nationals will be competing in the Jones Cup from July 18-26 in Taiwan.

As part of its preparation for SEABA and Fiba-Asia, the RP team plays an Australian selection in a series of exhibition matches in the first week of April then will be featured in the PBA All-Star Week from April 21-26.