BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Monday, January 17, 2011

UAAP to tackle volleyball and football issues

This appears in the Tuesday January 18, 2011 edition of the Business Mirror.

UAAP to tackle volleyball and football issues
by rick olivares

The University Athletics Association of the Philippines will tackle two sensitive and pressing issues in a special board meeting this coming Wednesday January 19, 2011.

The first issue is regarding the women’s volleyball tournament involving the league leading La Salle Lady Archers who have an 8-0 record to date.

After the rival National Collegiate Athletic Association docked College of Saint Benilde for some matches for fielding players Janel Lim and Arianne Yap were found to have competed in the World Citi College’s Viking Cup Invitational Tournament that was held from November 20, 2010 to January 16, 2011, De La Salle submitted the names of two of its players Carmela Garbin and Clarissa Yeung who also participated in same the tournament.

Like the NCAA, the UAAP forbids its players to participate in any other tournament at the same time as the ongoing competition. In UAAP Season 72 Men’s Football Tournament, the University of the Philippines forfeited three of its matches after two of their players were discovered to have played in the United Football League.

Based on UAAP rules, it follows that La Salle stands to forfeit four of its matches where both Garbin and Yeung participated in. The duo will likewise be disallowed from suiting up for the remainder of the tournament.

Compounding the issues of the UAAP and La Salle is another incident this time concerning the UAAP Juniors Football Tournament last Sunday January involving FEU and De La Salle Zobel.

In the 61st minute of their match and FEU up 4-0, the FEU goalkeeper and a La Salle field player collided in the air inside the Baby Tamaraws’ box. The referee, Christian Pacaña, rushed to the area after the goalkeeper fell to the ground and appeared apparently injured. Only Pacaña never blew his whistle to indicate a dead ball. An FEU player picked up the ball for the goalie to kick thinking that there was a deadball situation.

The Junior Archers knew there was no deadball so a field player kicked the ball towards the FEU goal. The ball struck the FEU keeper but rebounded back to the Junior Archer whose second volley found the back of the net. Pacaña signaled a goal but after the FEU players went to complain to him, he nullified the goal.

Incensed, DLSZ head coach Hans Smit instructed his players not to move and FEU scored once more in the 63rd minute to make it 5-0. Moments later, the match was stopped due to “abandonment.”

Match Commissioner Jojo Rodriguez urged caution when making a decision about this case. He pointed out Pacaña’s officiating lapses that led to the incident. “There are four infractions stemming from one play,” said the match commissioner. “One, he did not blow his whistle to stop play; two) he should have issued a red card to the FEU field player who picked up the ball; three) he should have awarded a penalty kick to La Salle for that infraction; and four) he reversed his call on the La Salle goal.”

As tournament officials conferred at the end of the day’s matches, Rodriguez argued for hearing all sides: “I believe that the match report as well as the report from the officials should be taken into consideration. The UAAP board should also hear out the side of the coach on why he instructed his players not to move although they did not leave the field.”

Smit on the other hand, lambasted the poor officiating that was handled by NCRFA and RIFA referees. “You cannot win every game. You lose some as well. I can stomach that as much as I hate it but losing this way? In one instance, one of my players was punched right in front of the fourth official yet he did not signal anything. We may have been down but a penalty could change the momentum.”

Ateneo de Manila’s UAAP Board representative, Richard Palou, Athletics Director for the host school said that all sides will be heard as the board hopes to resolve these thorny issues. 

5 comments:

  1. not being able to blow the whistle is NEVER AN INFRACTION! thats human error. picking up that ball deserves a YELLOW CARD, NOT RED.
    football officiating in the country needs a lot of improvement.good players need the refs protection against bad tackles.
    it is not only the sports infrastructure , management and player skills that the new pff leadership should develop. THE REFS S#@KS!!

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  2. You can lump the non-blowing in the infractions. As for the handling of the ball -- intentional handling of the ball merits a red card. and he was inside the box as well.

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  3. rick, an infraction is a violation of the rules of the game. non blowing is lapse on the side of the ref, you can never call that an infraction.
    there was no malicious intent on the handling of the ball and the keeper 'appeared apparently injured' , a pk should have been awarded and only a yellow in the spirit of fair play.

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  4. Thanks for the comments. Agree with the use of infraction. But as the person who said it meant, "parang kasama na yun. It's just a liberal use of it."

    As for the handball. Any intentional holding inside the penalty area is a red card. You should ask the refs and the coach. Iba yung incidental and actual holding. There was no deadball remember that.

    And look to Luis Suarez of Uruguay. There might be a difference in circumstance. The common denominator is they intentionally held the ball.

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  5. Ref Chair my comment was. The referee admitted that he forgot to blow his whistle, human mistake it happen now and then. Not all Handling the ball by defender are warrant a red card, there were no obvious goal scoring opportunity when gk has a fully control of the ball, yellow card for deliberately handled the ball is correct plus penalty. Ref committed technically and he was suspended for the rest of uaap season.Abandoned the match due to bad calls is different issue.Coach should not command for abandon...write a letter address to people concern. thanks

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