Courtesy of Sun Star Newspaper (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/)
Saturday, October 18, 2008 issue
by Mike T. Limpag, Columnist-Fair Play
SHARAPOVA should be today’s topic, but I’ll start off with reactions to the punch in Cesafi football and a new Team Cebu City
Here’s a reaction to the punch from “Ronaldo,” a regular visitor in my blog even before I got this space: “The punching incident happened between the fullback and the striker at the UV side of the field. There were other UV players nearby. The ongoing play was at the center of the field on the UC side and not on the sideline….It’s difficult to believe the claim of the linesman that he did not see anything. But then, many referees and linesmen are biased for this particular team. Everyone in Cebu football knows that…”
Although the refs didn’t include the incident in their report, UC has already filed a complaint. How Cesafi resolves the punch that never happened should be interesting.
Regarding referees, Ronaldo has a point. I’ve seen strange things in Cebu football, like an off-duty ref, while in uniform, giving pointers to another team in the sidelines. However, though I do agree questionable calls occur, I don’t think an official will just look the other way if somebody punches another on the field. I maybe wrong, but in this case, I surely hope I am not.
As to biases, perceived or blatant, issues like these never go away. I’m not a referee, never was, and I am not connected with any team, so when I see calls that doesn’t jibe, like a card that should have been given, I just think that the referee’s standard for “rough play” might be too high—bali-an pa man bag-o ma yellow card. Coaches, players and fans don’t have that luxury.
Poor calls may be a factor in that game but the incident didn’t result to another brawl and that is a credit to UC and the officials. Why it got physical…
OUTDATED ABOITIZ. Aside from the punch, I also got a few e-mails from “jed.mendoza@aboitizland.com,” regarding the outdated schedules at www.aboitizfootballcup.com. (I think they have updated it). After an unpleasant send-to-all e-mail that said, “The schedules come from CFA themselves, so I wouldn’t worry about that. Maybe it is just a timing issue because CFA is quite late in providing updates that we are implementing. I think Mike is expecting that the updates are real-time,” this dude asked me if I could e-mail my articles so their website will have news content.
Very nice. If it was anyone else who got that e-mail, it would have attracted a reply filled with four-letter words or future articles of their event will only have one paragraph. But I am nice.
After a few more e-mails, the picture I got is, Aboitizfootballcup.com is only for players. They forgot the fans. It is commendable that the Aboitiz Cup has decided to put up a website but I hope they improve the way they run it. Otherwise, it will be a waste of bandwidth. And you should worry about that.
ROOKS AND TEAM CEBU CITY. I learned from my former boss that Cebuanos represented Bislig and won third place during the National Inter- Province tournament. I didn’t know that “piracy” was also rampant in chess. I thought it was football’s signature (the NCR team having an all-Ilonggo squad). With the latest announcement from Councilor Jack Jakosalem, Cebuanos need not represent other cities as a Team Cebu City Chess will now be formed.
Unfortunately, Councilor Jack was disappointed to learn there are only a few tournaments for the team but I have a wacky idea for Jack the Wack. It’s about (hold on to your coffee Sir Jack) international stints.
Let’s just send one or two of the most promising Cebuanos in tournaments in neighboring countries. They may not win even one title, but I’m sure, along the way, they’d pick up an IM or even GM norm or two.
Eventually we’d have a true blue grandmaster, courtesy of Team Cebu City… Now back to favorite blonde…
Shoot, I ran out of space for Maria…darn it...
(mikelimpag@gmail.com, http://www.football.cebunetwork.com/)
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