THE Philippine Football Federation said on Monday the football program which made World Cup history for the Philippines will not be changed and vowed that it will be improved further to meet the demands of the national women's team's current and future campaigns.
There were worries that the resignation of Jeff Cheng, team manager of the women's football team also known as Filipinas, and who is widely credited for being the architect of the country's stunning run to the Women's World Cup, would adversely affect the team and hinder its progress.
The PFF, however, assured that Cheng's program and contributions that made the team a success will continue to be implemented despite the absence of the former team manager, whose departure shocked the sports community and signalled that perhaps all's not well within the federation following the election of a new set of officers.
READ Filipinas patron Jeff Cheng resigns due to differences with PFF
PFF director of national teams Freddy Gonzalez said Cheng's resignation will not have a major effect as the federation is now mapping out ways to bring in multiple individuals and companies to support the Filipinas.
“This is an unfortunate situation that I ended up being put in," he said, "but we are ready to handle it. We’ve set up everything in the national team department. We are capable of handling all of these things. It’s not something I’m worried about.”
“I just want to make sure that all the great work that Jeff has done over the years is going to be continued. It’s not going to be broken up or changed,” said Gonzalez.
After steering the team to a historic qualification and victory in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, Cheng suddenly stepped down as the team’s patron, saying he and the PFF’s “priorities and goals do not align, and the PNWFT organization that we worked hard to develop in the past years is incompatible with current methods.”
Cheng's misgivings came just months after the PFF elected John Gutierrez president to replace Mariano "Nonong" Araneta Jr., who served two terms of four years per term. It was under Araneta that saw football gain a foothold in this basketball-crazy country beginning with the creation of the Azkals, the men's national team.
Meeting with players; coaches' future uncertain
The PFF is scheduled to meet with players and coaches online to discuss the future of the team under the new set-up. A transition period has also began on Monday between the camps of Cheng and PFF.
“We are going through a turnover with Jeff this morning. That’s probably going to take the whole week to really iron everything. I’m going to be speaking with the players and the coaching staff this week to talk about everything and what’s going to be changing moving forward,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez though admitted the federation will make an evaluation of the Filipinas coaching staff headed by Mark Torcaso, an Australian mentor who took over the position of Alen Stajcic after he stepped down after last year’s World Cup.
“As much as we appreciate (them), we did the same thing with the men. We are going to apply the same thing to the women and see if it’s the best way to continue or do we move in another direction.
“Right now, the women's program is going to continue as is. We’re going to plan it out. We are not going to change anything with regards to the players, the player pool. In fact, we are looking at adding more players,” said Gonzalez.
Friendly matches for the Filipinas
Gonzalez said the PFF has already plotted the schedule of PWNT where they will play friendlies in the October and November FIFA windows.
The November matches will be played in between the Philippine men’s team campaign in the Mitsubishi Electric Cup, formerly known as the AFF Suzuki Cup, later this year.
“You are still going to see Sarina Bolden,” said Gonzalez. “I have a Zoom meeting with them on Wednesday. All the players, in that aspect, nothing has changed. We are going to take a look at the processes and everything these guys have done the last few years. We’ll see if anything needs to be paid or needs to get better. But we don’t want to, at least my department, break up something that have been working.”
As for funding the PWNT, Gonzalez said they plan to take a page out of the men’s national team that also had major changes in the managerial side where they will be searching for several entities to sponsor the team.
“It’s not just relying on one individual but we put a pool of private individuals as well as companies that are helping support the men’s team. The same is gonna apply to the women’s as well. The whole idea behind the national teams moving forward is not to rely on any one single individual but a pool of private individuals and corporations that will be supporting the national team year in and year out,” said Gonzalez.
“The problem with any one individual is if that individual suddenly, something happens to that individual, then all the funding dries up. By having a pool of individuals and corporations supporting and helping the national team, it means that if one goes out, we still have the whole pool there to push it forward,” said Gonzalez.
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