No sportsmanship required

I have to laugh every time I hear people calling on Peping Cojuangco to step down or resign from his post as chairman of the Philippine Olympic Committee. This guy stood up against Marcos, spent years in Congress and has been involved in many of the milestone events in the country’s modern history and has competed in politics etc. with the best of them. Cong. Peping is very much like his fighting cocks. They are game and the older they get the tougher they are. Cojuangco would surely enjoy it, if the fight drags on because he is not a quitter and that is why he has been around this long. So his critics should consider a wiser approach because they might win the battle but the injury might maim them or their plans.

The point is to bring back sportsmanship and respect to the table. Not publicity, character assassination, or lawyering up because all of those are “foul.”

It is ironic that the affairs of the country’s sports officials have deteriorated from sportsmanship to an act much like a corporate “hostile take over.” Imagine sports officials going to the courts of law and public opinion to make their point or win their case. One would think that after spending years managing the affairs of sports associations, they would all behave with “sportsmanship” in mind and not like enforcers in a hostile takeover scenario. What is it about Philippine sports and its management or control that makes it so attractive that combatants end up hiring lawyers, PR people all seeking media attention? Ego?

I’ve often wondered why sports associations and officials regularly squabble or end up being news fillers mostly on occasions when there is nothing else worth writing about. As it turns out, I found out that the primary reason sports and its management in the Philippines has remained parochial and typifies patronage leadership is because most sports associations depend on government funding and oversight. As we all know such a dependency is almost always affected by politics and the regular change of administrations, senators and congressmen who have the power of the purse and all of whom have political debts or requests to grant to supporters and financiers.

Unfortunately, everybody thinks there’s money, prestige, perks or all of the above when one becomes an officer of a sports association or the Philippine Olympic Committee. So every time we have a new government there is always a wave of invaders wanting to take up official space in the world of Philippine sports and their respective associations.

On the other hand there are those who represent private sector interests, primarily financial supporters or dedicated enthusiasts who want to be more than just financiers of our athletes and associations. To begin with they of course want to insure their donations are spent wisely and correctly. The problem in this situation is that most donors who start out as benevolent contributors ultimately commit the mistake of wanting to control the development of programs and the outcome of sports and related activities. This is to be expected because that is the nature of businessmen and investors. They sincerely believe they have better ideas and can run things better.

Ironically, these businessmen and their representatives have more important things to do on a daily business such as make money and run companies. The bad part is when businessmen try to use sports for their self-promotion or to stroke their own egos and begin to scheme or plot how to use our national sports program as their tool for expansion or influence. Either way most of them are wrapped up in their own business or schedules that it becomes a matter of time when these corporate representatives start delegating their work and authority to minions and the sports agenda suffers as it always does from lack of attention or focus.

If the honorable Senators and Congressmen who sit in sports-related committees sincerely want to see a major change in the politics of sports and the development of sports, they have to insulate the field from patronage politics and officials and associations having to go around town with a begging bowl. Sports programs and development must have automatic funding from the national budget, automatic annual increases based on a professionally crafted sports development program and the appointments to positions must be spelled out by law which should indicate the requirements and qualifications as well as provide tenure and compensation in order to attract or hire real professionals or experts for athletic development.

Put an end to electoral controversies in sports as well as disruptive political appointments by professionalizing the program. Put an end to the practice where just because you are a coach, or someone who represents a donor, or someone appointed by Malacañang, you automatically qualify to be a National Sports Official of the Philippines. Require degrees, training, management experience, international exposure etc. and make it competitive and not politically or judicially directed by virtue of court orders, TROs and judgments. Limit how many positions or associations an official can be part of as well as the level or position they can occupy. Remember the phrase: “Jack of all trades – master of none.” Specialization and focus must be the key words to qualify for the job not who your backer is or how many gazillions you can raise for a war chest.

Right now, we have a Judge telling officials what to do. Have you ever seen what happens when a referee takes sides in a game like basketball? Things simply get worse. At this stage, our sports officials should consider back door diplomacy, respectful deliberations and negotiations rather than public squabbling because they are all hurting themselves. The truth of the matter is they all have feet of clay and their public squabble achieves nothing.

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