To paraphrase Albert Einstein, “The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who do evil; but because of those who look on and do nothing about it.”
To be clear about it, I am not accusing anyone of doing evil in our midst.
I am concerned more about myself not doing anything about something that I know needs to be corrected and improved. I am a teacher by profession. It is my duty to create awareness among my colleagues, students, and members of the community where I live, about matters and issues that need to be confronted, to have a bias for action, and attempt to correct and change the status quo for the better.
I do not want to watch and just be a spectator. I want to be an active participant in all affairs that affect my daily life. I do this because I care for myself, my fellow human beings, and the community where I live.
I belong to the profession of teaching physical education and sports. I have been doing this since 1960. I believe in the potential of physical activity in the form of sports participation as an effective tool in the education and formation of children and young people.
And that is why I continue to involve myself in sports. Teaching children and young people, sharing with them a passion and love for what has given rise to the Olympic Games, the World Cup and other international sporting events that celebrate man’s quest for humanity, excellence and peace–is what makes my profession very special for me. It is also the reason why I am writing about this particular issue: the need for a new football association in Negros Oriental.
Why do I write about the need to organize a new football association when there is the Negros Oriental Football Association (NORFA) headed by Dick Emperado, accredited by the Philippine Football Federation and the only existing sports association in our Province?
Here are my reasons: For the past five years, yes, it’s that long, I have raised the following questions which were never answered, even by Dodo Bustamante, who resigned last year as secretary general of NORFA, and whose replacement we have not been informed of yet: Who are the officers of NORFA? Who are the members? When is the next meeting? What are the plans? What is the financial status of the association? Where is the annual report?
I informed Dick Emperado last year that Foundation University is willing to host a NORFA general membership meeting just so we could get our acts together. I invited him to the football tournaments that FU hosted and in the occasions that Emperado attended, I reiterated our request that we hold a meeting.
Last year, he agreed with us that while FU will overseer the program for futsal and 7-a-Side football, NORFA will be responsible for the 11-a-Side program.
This agreement was not observed when last week, organizers of the U13 girls football eliminations tournament to select the members for the national team take part in the international competition to be held November in Vietnam, contacted FU to send its team because NORFA was “not communicating” with the organizers.
FU was able to form a team within 24 hours, with some local coaches even wary of allowing their wards to join because they feared that NORFA would suspend them and their players. It was this incident that motivated me to undertake the following steps:
1. I will write Mariano “Nonong” Araneta, PFF president, a former football player of UP, and whom I am well acquainted with, and inform him of the problems we are experiencing with NORFA in our effort to promote football in Negros Oriental, citing to him the recent inability of NORFA to form an U13 girls team for the national eliminations and the failure of NORFA to field or support any team in the PFF summer caravan festival held in Talisay. FU fielded a U12 and an U14 boys football teams in this event.
2. With the help of football stakeholders in Negros Oriental, we will form what we will call Task Force NegOr Football, comprised of school-and-LGU-based football clubs. There were 50 teams that took part in the recently-concluded futsal tournament organized by FU, and we will invite the managers of these teams as members of TFNF.
3. We will ask PFF to grant provisional accreditation to TFNF which will undertake various developmental activities to promote football, and after one year, a general election will be held to elect officials of a football association in Negros Oriental. This organization and its elected officials will be the designated as the new NORFA.
With the assistance of the staff of the FU Institute of Youth Sports for Peace and support of the University community, I will personally oversee the implementation of this plan.
Whether we succeed or not in getting the support of the PFF in creating a new football association in Negros Oriental is beside the point. What matters most is that, in the end, we know that we have not just looked on, but have done something to correct a wrong, and to improve the practice of not only football, but sports as well, in our locality.
I am informing the public and NORFA of this plan that I will undertake so that I will not be accused of intriguing or pursuing covert operations to discredit the people behind the association.
As I have written in this column several times in the past, I am not interested in becoming an officer of NORFA. Neither is anyone connected with FU interested in a NORFA position.
What we only want is transparency, action, and development of football.
I call on all lovers and stakeholders of sports in Negros Oriental to join us in this mission to save football, and bring it into the mainstream of the national fervor for this sport where the Filipinos could aspire to become competitive and part of the FIFA dream: The future is Asia.
I would especially ask Mayor Chiquiting Sagarbarria to help us because upon assumption to office almost three years ago, he had revealed that one of his fondest dreams is to have a competitive Dumaguete City Football Team.
With his support for a new football association, that dream is tenable.
