Philippine women's futsal in row leading to AFC qualifiers

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine football has seen significant inroads on all fronts these past few years. 

The Filipinas got the ball rolling with their superb turnaround that culminated with a FIFA Women’s World Cup berth in 2023. Just this past week, right before the end of 2024, the Philippine men’s team gave its best account of themselves in the biennial Mitsubishi Electric Cup, where they narrowly made it to the finals, only to fall short to Thailand by one goal in the semifinals.

However, in an unfortunate turn of events for the women’s futsal team, both the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and the Philippine women’s futsal team (PWFT) are embroiled in a dispute that could derail the inroads made in the last few years.

The Pinay 5’s head coach of the last two years, Vic Hermans, was released from his duties last December 23, 2024 in a letter sent by current PFF president John Gutierrez to the Dutch national, who is currently back in his native the Netherlands for the holiday season.

Gutierrez reasoned that “you and the PFF have insufficient time to properly assess and evaluate our pool of potential players, much less be effectively prepared for the AFC Qualifiers on January 11, if no changes are effected.”

The AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup Qualifiers will take place from January 11-19 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. 

This began when the PFF sent the futsal program leadership request to include four additional players for the AFC Qualifiers.

PWFT manager Danny Moran sent a letter to Gutierrez, where he noted that in the agreement signed last September 23, 2024, the head coach, in coordination with the PFF, has the authority to make final decisions regarding player selection.

“The PFF cannot unilaterally include players without the head coach’s evaluation,” wrote Moran. 

Gutierrez disputed this in a response dated December 16 with emphasis on “the PFF is the governing body responsible for national teams which includes the national futsal team.”

Added the PFF leader, “the agreement dated September 23, 2024 does not create an autonomous entity.”

“The PFF Director of Football, Director of National Teams, and Technical Department evaluated that certain members of the current roster should be replaced with objectively stronger players.”

In the same letter, Gutierrez also voiced concern about “the head coach taking a vacation instead of evaluating the players and strengthening the team.”

Moran’s response on December 18 stressed that the PWFT has adhered to PFF guidelines and principles and pointed to item No. 5 in the agreement that highlighted the head coach as being responsible for the selection of players.

“It is important to emphasize the distinction between football and futsal that are much like baseball and softball or marathons and long distance track events.”

He pointed to the addition of Samantha Hughes, Catherine Graversen, Arthea Rebusura, Alisha del Campo and Angelica Teves as a willingness to add players in spite of them not being with the original program.

In a directive from the PFF to immediately return for team preparations, Gutierrez expressed serious concern about the timing of Hermans’ vacation in his home country as well as some players going on a Christmas break.

In a strongly worded letter, Gutierrez directed Hermans to return “on or before December 22 to lead and oversee the crucial preparatory stage for the upcoming tournament.” He also stressed that it is the Dutchman’s “professional obligation to evaluate new players, finalize the team roster, and conduct intensive training sessions.”

The PWFT’s reasoning for their schedule was they had been playing not only in the AFF but also in the High 5 Futsal League and wanted to give everyone a break with camp scheduled to resume January 4, 2025.

The national team also said that since the Philippines was host for the 2025 FIFA Futsal World Cup, the country was only in the qualifiers to gain more experience. They also pointed to ID camps slated from January 30-February 2 where potential national players could show their wares.

PFF general secretary Angelic Mercader sent an invite last December 20 to the current national team as well as others for PWFT ID Camp that was to be held from December 26-30 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Apparently, both Hermans and Moran were not informed, and only learned this from the players.

That prompted Moran to shoot Mercader a letter certifying that the national team’s program for training was submitted on two separate occasions in September and November of 2024 to which the PFF reviewed and agreed.

Moran also asked why wasn’t Hermans and himself informed of these changes.

The answer was sent by Gutierrez on December 23 about the realignment. Although dismissed from the women’s team, the PFF president said that he would continue his work as head coach of the men’s futsal national team.

Moran’s rejoinder on the 24th sought to put everything in perspective. He pointed out that the Philippines’ fifth-place finish in the AFF tournament does not mean that PWFT performed badly.

“The Philippines (ranked 61st in the world by FIFA) drew 2-2 with 38th^-ranked Myanmar, narrowly lost to 14th-ranked Indonesia with a last-minute goal ending the match at 2-1. In contrast, last year we lost to Indonesia with scores of 9-4 and 5-2. These results show a clear improvement under Herman’s leadership.”

Four of the players of the team that competed in the AFF Tournament have resigned in response to the removal of Hermans – Mykaella Abeto, Lanie Ortillo, Louraine Evangelista, and Isabella Bandoja who scored two goals in the inaugural Asean tournament. All four hail from the lauded Tuloy sa Don Bosco program.

According to Mercader, the PFF will address this concern and make an announcement very soon.