THE Springdale Football Club has decided to make an appeal to the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) regarding the three-year suspension slapped on all of its teams and its head coach Mario Ceniza by the Cebu Football Association (CFA).
The sanction was given to Springdale after its withdrawal from the ongoing 14th Aboitiz Football Cup, which steamed from an incident last Jan. 7 wherein Springdale’s boys 14 team was defaulted in their match against Blessed John.
In their letter to withdraw from the tournament, Springdale claimed that the tournament organizers gave them a 15-minute grace period for their 12:30 p.m. match, which the organizers deny.
According to the Aboitiz tournament ground rules, teams must be in the field an hour before the scheduled match. Grace period only applies for the first game. Scheduled time should be followed and not advanced and no alteration of schedules is allowed after schedules have been finalized and received by the teams.
Springdale claims that their boys 14 team was already at the gate at 12:40 p.m., but the team was still defaulted.
The reason why the team came late was because it came from the University of San Carlos Technological Center (USC-TC), where it played in the 2nd Sinulog Football Cup. This tournament was not sanctioned by the CFA.
The Sinulog Cup was part of the Sinulog Foundation Inc.’s activities for the feast of the Sto. Niño and it is organized by the Cebu Amateur Football Club (CAFC). The organizer of the Aboitiz Football Cup is the CFA.
Last Jan. 31, Springdale received a letter from the CFA that stated the group’s reasons for the default. On the same day, they also received a letter stating the sanction slapped on the team.
no chance to be heard
Springdale officials said they were not called to any investigation before the decisions were made.
The suspension bans the Springdale Football Club and Ceniza from taking part in any CFA and PFF organized and sanctioned tournaments, courses and football related activities for three years.
Springdale in its letter to the PFF claimed the imposition of the “harsh penalty shows the apparent unfairness and bias of the incumbent officers of the CFA against us, which is clearly not in consonance with the PFF’s Catalogue of Punishments.”
“We refer to Item 6 of the Introduction of the Catalogue of Punishments, which mandates the ‘tournament committee to see to it that the punishments are carried out according to the catalogue’ and Item 4 (7) which sets the maximum suspension for a team withdrawing to only six months.”
Springdale expressed its concern that the way the matter has been resolved may “leave a bad mark on PFF’s implementation of grassroots development here in Cebu.” /CORRESPONDENT MARS G. ALISON