Bleachers' Brew #229 Another red card for Philippine Football

This appears in my column in the October 4, 2010 edition of the Business Mirror.

Another red card for Philippine Football

by rick olivares

The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) receives $250,000 every year from Fifa. That translates into roughly P12,000,000. That makes is the second most moneyed National Sports Agency following the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas. Yet in terms of progress, it is one of the worst. Progress is slow, the results are disappointing, and unity is nonexistent. The various football associations hardly get along and are suspicious of one another’s motives.

Said an old-timer in the local football scene, “Before Fifa began to give money no one wanted to get involved. When the money started coming in, everyone wanted in.”

The money sent by Fifa is supposed to be used for a national tournament, coaches and grassroots training, disbursement to the member associations for various projects, and quite a few more. Once the budgets are drawn up for national and regional projects, it is supposed to be taken up by the Board of Governors for approval.

But like in this republic of dangerous minds, that has not been the case in recent years. Nothing has gone to the football associations for years now. There is no national tournament. The men’s and women’s national teams are funded by the managers. Instead, the money has been used to increase the PFF’s assets by investing money with persons not associated with football and hiring the marketing services of a group that delivered nothing. Instead, the money has been used and misused.

One football association has had enough. The Cebu Football Federation behind its officers Richard Montayre and Dick Emperado (FA president of Dumaguete), filed a case against PFF president Jose Mari Martinez for falsification of documents last month.

In a meeting with Montayre two months ago, he disclosed how he was surprised to come across a notarized document dated November 28, 2009, that stated that any two of the following three persons—PFF president Jose Mari Martinez, PFF treasurer Antonio Marty and PFF managing consultant Henry Tsai—were authorized signatories to the NSA’s corporate account with Banco de Oro.

Montayre and Emperado were both present in the meeting but the issue of adding a third signatory—Tsai’s—was never taken up.

And in another document prepared by then “acting general secretary” Ramon Manuel sent to the bank dated June 19, 2010, it mentioned a new board resolution that stated only Martinez and Marty could authorize the movement of the PFF funds. Coincidentally, around that time, the word filtering from the offices of the PFF in Pasig City about a falling out between Martinez and Tsai.

Montayre contends that there was no such board meeting. And furthermore, asked Montayre, “Who is Henry Tsai? No one knows him in the local football scene. So how could he have been a member of the board?”

I managed to secure the mobile-phone number and tried getting in touch with Mr. Tsai and his wife but received no reply. I tried calling again and it was his brother, Peter, who picked up and said he did not know anything about Tsai’s involvement with the PFF. While also surfing the Internet for any information about Tsai, I came across some disturbing information (blog.henrytsai.com) that, of course, may or may not be true.

During a board meeting on September 25, Martinez shed light on Tsai’s “appointment.” “I had to find a solution to Mr. Marty leaving for abroad and the solution was to get Tsai. But before Tsai could be a signatory, he had to fulfill 4 criteria he set... first, as a manager of the Futsal team, second, as a fallback since the PFF always lacked money before the end of the year; thirdly, to rent the ground floor for P40,000 a month; and fourthly, to sell football products.”

And this begs even more questions. Why did Martinez require Tsai to fulfill four requirements to be able to be a signatory to PFF checks? What’s in it for Tsai? And what interests does Martinez have?

Martinez was stripped of his right to authorize transactions from the BDO account.

In that meeting, the Naga FA’s Atty. Anlu Carpio questioned Tsai’s appointment without board approval.

I was able to secure a PFF memorandum dated June 15, four days before the document sent to the bank that excluded Tsai from being an authorized signatory to the savings account. The memo was from Tsai and it had him listed as “Executive Vice President of the PFF” and the subject matter was regarding “overtime, weekends, and holiday access to the PFF building.”

While asking other local football officials about Tsai’s appointment, they expressed surprise and anger. “We knew no such thing about his appointment or involvement in the federation,” said National Capital Region FA president Pocholo Borromeo.

The PFF’s House of Football in Pasig was built through the Fifa Goal Project that helps in the creation of technical centers or headquarters where the NSA can effectively run its operations. It is technically Fifa property and cannot be used for anything else, at least not without permission from Fifa.

A check of the expenses of the PFF in the past year showed, among others, a disbursement of some money to the Pagadian Football Association, an honorarium to the Board Treasurer (Marty), expenses for the PFF Futsal Cup, and some other football-related matters.

On the other hand, it also revealed some curious entries: payment for Bayantel numbers not used by the PFF, sliced cheese bought from Martinez, SM appliances and car expenses, Valle Verde Country Club shares bought and enjoyed by its three signatories (Martinez, Tsai and Gerry Ledonio, marketing head) and “investments” by Tsai.

There are also numerous particulars for payments for credit cards and loans.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.