THE PHILIPPINE Football Federation (PFF) has appointed Eleazar Toledo as the grassroots development officer (GDO) for the Cebu Football Association (CFA) in line with the implementation of the Kasibulan Football Grassroots Development Program.
The program was relaunched last February with Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) vice president HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein as guest. He is also the founder of the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP), a non-profit youth commission based in Amman, Jordan, which aims to provide effective, needs-based assistance to all Asian national and regional football associations and affiliates fairly.
The AFDP is assisting the PFF in re-launching the Kasibulan Football Grassroots Development Program by providing equipment to support its grassroots activities. It was launched a few years back but was not sustained due to the lack of funding.
This time, PFF also has the support of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
The Kasibulan Program will follow the same approach as last time, which is through the Department of Education. The PFF already signed a memorandum of understanding with the DepEd for the program set to be implemented from April to October.
For every football association (FA), one GDO is appointed by the PFF. The GDO’s task is to organize a three-day workshop, wherein they ought to reach the target of C-60 and P-500. C-60 means being able to teach the program to 60 coaches per area under the FA while P-500 means 500 participants for the Grassroots Course Festival (GCF), which will be held on the last day of the workshop.
Every FA is required to run six GCF through the GDO within six months.
Toledo prepared for the task by attending the 10-day instructors’ workshop held last week in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
After undergoing the GCF, the chosen areas should be able to hold their GCF and run their festival. For Cebu, Toledo has tentatively chosen Consolacion, Danao, Talisay City, Balamban, Barili and Dumanjug.
After six months, PFF will evaluate the success of the program, and if results are favorable, the program will continue for the whole year. /CORRESPONDENT MARS G. ALISON