Football chief's awesome feeling

Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano (Nonong) Araneta was in Cloud 9, like he was floating on air, when the Azkals crushed Sri Lanka, 4-0, to seal their entry into the second round of the World Cup Asia qualifiers before a crowd of over 13,000 at a jampacked Rizal Memorial Stadium early this month.

Araneta said he was in ecstasy not because of the lopsided score but because of the way the Azkals got the job done in full view of an adoring audience.

 “The team made us all proud to be Filipino,” said Araneta who took over the PFF helm from Mari Martinez in the wake of an expose of alleged shenanigans casting doubt on the integrity of the previous administration. “It wasn’t just the score but also how the team played, the movement of the ball, relying on short passes instead of long kicks. I spoke with former national players who watched the match and one of them, Joey Veloso, told me with at least 10 more games, the Azkals will be stronger with more cohesion and could become contenders in Asia.”

As for staging the event in the open-air stadium, Araneta said it was a lot of hard work. PFF treasurer Joseph Ladrido was designated chairman of the organizing committee with Cathy Rivilla the general coordinator. Tapped to mount the event was Crush Advertising, the first Asian multinational advertising and events management network. Rod Nepomuceno is the managing director of Crush Philippines and Crush Advertising regional vice president and executive creative director. Crush’s accounts include McDonald’s, Nestle and St. Luke’s Medical Center.

La Salle refurbished the football pitch in an agreement with the Philippine Sports Commission.  Ike Madamba was the prime contractor for the job. The PFF itself undertook the rehabilitation of the stadium’s facilities including the grandstand, dressing rooms and the timing mechanism.

 “It took months to prepare for the event and we needed all the help we could get,” said Araneta. “We wanted to make sure that every ticket holder had an assigned seat so we numbered every sitting space there was, including in the unroofed area. We fixed up the seats in the roofed section. We saw the electronic clock wasn’t working so we wanted to get it repaired. We were told technicians from Malaysia could fly in to fix it but they were charging $4,300 without plane fares and hotel accommodations. We couldn’t get a guarantee that the mechanism would be fixed in time for the match so we decided to rent an electronic mechanism instead at a rate of P60,000 a day.”

Araneta said the event went off without a hitch. “We spent about P9 million to stage the event, including provisions for security and ushers and the rehabilitation of the dressing rooms, restrooms and grandstand. Fortunately, we grossed about P11 million from ticket sales. So we covered our costs. It was an awesome feeling. After so many years, it’s wonderful to see that football is attracting fans back to the stadium. The atmosphere was electric that day. Football fans of all ages and generations united to support our team. I think it was the biggest football event we hosted since the Southeast Asian Games in 1991. Credit goes to the organizing committee for staging a perfect event.”

The next Azkals match at the Rizal Memorial Stadium is scheduled July 28, a Thursday, against Kuwait in the rematch of the two-game series to determine the qualifier joining five top seeds – No. 1 Japan, No. 2 South Korea, No. 3 Australia, No. 4 North Korea, No. 5 Bahrain – and 14 other second round survivors in the 20-team group eliminations on the way to the finals.

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The PBA draft is set Aug. 29 at the Robinson’s Galleria in Manila and from all indications, it will be the richest harvest in years even if Chris Tiu or Junmar Fajardo don’t join. If Tiu and Fajardo make the jump, the draft will exceed expectations in terms of depth of talent.

Expected to apply for the draft are at least seven Smart Gilas mainstays, namely, Jvee Casio, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Lutz, Dylan Ababou, Mark Barroca, Mac Baracael and Jason Ballesteros. Also in the prospective list are amateur standouts Paul Lee, Allein Maliksi, Vic Manuel, Reil Cervantes, Eric Salamat, James Martinez and Ronald Pascual.

Fil-foreigners are required to play at least five games each in two PBA D-League conferences so N-Lex stalwarts Cliff Hodge and Chris Ellis will need to play in the next conference this October to be eligible for next year’s draft. An exemption will be made for Fil-foreigners who have played with the national team. Starting next year, local applicants must play in at least one D-League conference to be eligible for the draft.

Without pre-empting an impending PBA Board of Governors decision, a league insider speculated that the Barako Bull franchise – to be acquired by the Lina Group – will likely be awarded the last pick of the first round and the first choice of the second round.    

Deadlines for Fil-foreign applications is July 29 and local applications on Aug. 18. The rookie camp will be held on Aug. 24-26, tentatively at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig. Sizing of all rookie eligibles will be made on Aug. 23 at Club 650 in Libis.