FIRST and foremost, I am for a professional football league and its tier-system. Despite its struggles, I think it is still good. I’d hate to say these are baby steps because everyone has been at it for years.
I will not point to the Covid-19 pandemic as the problem because all the problems were even there before.
Having said that … from the United Football League in 2010 all the way to the current Philippines Football League (PFL) this 2023, there have been six champions.
Of those six, only two still play in top flight football—Stallion and Kaya.
Philippine Air Force still competes but not in top flight. Global, Ceres and United City have all fallen by the wayside.
This current PFL season where Kaya was crowned league champions for the first time in its illustrious history, we saw two clubs leave mid-season—United City and the Azkals Development Team.
They are the latest in a long line of top clubs to have dissolved, folded, or in the case of the Armed Forces of the Philippines clubs, competed elsewhere.
And it is sad to see men’s football in disarray.
I have previously written about this—the departure of the top clubs, a clear indication that all is not well.
If the problem of some top clubs in international football is financial fair play (see Man City and Paris St. Germain), locally, it’s financial capability.
It seems everyone was excited about the sudden surge in popularity of football in 2010 that a lot of things were overlooked. And with every year, you could see the gap between the moneyed squads and those with none.
Then teams started dropping out. Even the teams with so-called money eventually ran into trouble because it is not sustainable. It is mere disposable income with hardly any returns.
Teams should be assessed for
• Their financial capability,
• Operational requirements,
•And a fan base.
The operational term is “assess.” That means submission of documents that should be vetted. All the characters behind every club should have proper documents so everyone knows who they are; not some person based abroad who is unreachable.
In the haste to open a pro league, teams were accepted when they hardly had much. Many of them do not even pay their players. So much for being called professional. This is a result of that poor planning and management.
Do you need to do away matches? It sounds great, but there are cost implications to everything. Maybe, not yet. In due time, yes.
Look at it this way, the English Football Association does not run the Premier League. They have a bit of oversight and veto power but they do not run the day to day operations. It is the league that takes care of that.
The German Bundesliga was founded by the German Football Association but is now operated by the German Football League.
Maybe that is some food for thought in running the league.
Is a television partner a must?
Well, yes. But I ask, what product? Are there enough eyeballs, views and interest to warrant such?
The league must concentrate on building its competition, the teams, and even a strong and sound marketing plan. As it is said, build it and they will come.
All I can say is I hope they can look at all this with an open mind (they are so defensive when it comes to criticism eh simple lang naman ang tanong—tama ba o mali? Good luck for the next season and hopefully, it is much better.
