Comments on Caslib's reaction

Several football enthusiasts yesterday texted, e-mailed and phoned in comments on former national coach Aris Caslib’s angry reaction to the statement that “Desmond Bulpin may not be the best coach out there but he’s much better than anyone locally.” Caslib branded the statement, quoted from a source, as discriminatory and anti-Filipino. Bulpin, who is British, was recruited to coach the Philippine men’s team late last year.

Former national coach Juan Cutillas sent in this reaction:

“Talk is cheap. The reason behind why foreign coaches are much better is for one simple reason. They coach in a good environment – good fields, good crowd, good support for football as the national sport – and are exposed to strong competition.

“You can only be a good coach under these conditions. I was lucky to coach in so many international level matches and in Australia at the top level. Probably, if a local coach got a contract abroad, it will be different. All these courses on developing coaches are just good on paper. I have dozens of certificates from these courses. Only by competing in good cut-throat level matches will you become a competitive national coach.”

Pocholo Borromeo, whose son Aly plays for the Philippine men’s squad, said:

“Aris is an excellent assistant coach. He does not have the maturity and football mentality that coaches in football-crazy countries have, especially England, Spain, Germany and France. It is a sixth sense for them. Even the better Asian countries like Korea or Japan or even Thailand, football sense is ‘native’ to their minds and yet even some of those countries employ European national team coaches.

“The other aspect is a ‘parochial’ thinking and crab mentality of the very small coaching community in the country. In a population of 90 million, we only have two A-license coaches, Aris and Marlon Maro – who conduct the B and C-license coaching courses in the country.”

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Benjie Anicete, coach of the Rizal Football Association (RIFA) under-11 midgets-C champion Claret School, chimed in:

“We have many good football coaches but we have very bad football leadership. It is frustrating. We could have a chance to be competitive in Asia but because of leadership issues, we can’t move forward. Last year, we sent an under-14 boys team to compete in the first Asian Youth Games in Singapore. The team was poorly prepared with only a month of training.

“Luckily, the two coaches Andrew Santiago and Bob Salvacion were fully committed to flag and country. They trained twice a day despite no logistical support from the PFF (Philippine Football Federation). The team was not the best we could assemble since a lot of good players couldn’t go because they had no passports and the PFF didn’t care to facilitate. The PFF didn’t allow a therapist to join the team. So the players’ parents shouldered the cost. The coaches never got allowances despite submitting reports. That was the tournament where our team was quarantined because one player had the H1N1 flu virus.”

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Anicete, by the way, said RIFA continues to develop young football players in a solid grassroots program.

“Even seven-year-olds are playing in RIFA,” said Anicete. It’s the biggest football association of schools with members such as Claret, Ateneo, La Salle Greenhills, Colegio de San Agustin, Southridge, International School, British School of Manila, La Salle College of Antipolo, Marist, Aquinas, Xavier, Lourdes Manila, Faith Academy, FEU, PCU, Victory School, Southville, Holistic Education Center of Antipolo, Don Bosco Makati and Manadaluyong. The member schools pay for all the expenses to hold tournaments with no support from the PFF.

“The kids are competitive in the under-9 and under-11 divisions and I think they will do well against other Asian countries. In the midgets-C under-11 category, Claret beat Ateneo, 6-5, on penalty shots, San Agustin, 4-1, in the semis and Hedcen, 1-0. I coached the team with trainers Franco Bambico and Topet Datu. Bob Salvation was our program head. Our first stringers were John Abraham, Marco Casambre, Jerold Facturanan, Francisco Salcedo, Ray Vincent Sanciangco, Harel Dayan and Miggy Mendoza. The subs were Cholo Ramirez, E.J. Orodio, Ched Laurena, Joseph Obana and Mark Tongol. The quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches were held at the Ateneo high school field last October. Games are seven-a-side. I believe RIFA can lead the way to our future in football. It’s a well-organized league run by a Board with representatives of each member school. No politics, no PFF.”

To reassure insecure local coaches, Bulpin’s presence isn’t permanent. He’s here to rebuild the crumbled foundations of the sport for Filipino coaches to eventually fortify and strengthen. There’s nothing discriminatory about that. In fact, Caslib and other Filipino coaches should try to learn as much as they can from Bulpin while he’s around – incidentally, at no cost to the PFF because his contract is strictly covered by individual patrons.