Cristy Ramos again questions Philippine policy

Is the Philippine Football Federation ignoring internationally-sanctioned events and preferring to send teams to overseas invitational tournaments instead? According to Cristy Ramos, the highest Filipino official in FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, the PFF failed to field teams in two age-group events for women organized by the AFC. "They missed the registration deadline for the Asian Under-16 tournament last May 12 and then the Asian Under-14 event last July 16. This I don’t understand," Ramos said at the Philippine Sportswriters Association in Manila."The PFF does not send teams to this official AFC-sanctioned events and yet at the FIFA women’s seminar last week, one of its officials announced that they would sent a women’s squad to an invitational tournament to Singapore," she added.

Late last year, Ramos, a member of the FIFA Women’s Committee and chairman of the AFC women’s committee, revealed that the PFF had missed the 31 August deadline for Asian Under-19 women’s tournament in 2006. This miscue forced the PFF to disband the national women’s squad, which was only informed of it in January when they had already trained for the event, Bong Pedralvez reported in The Manila Times.

"I am only critical of the PFF when I see a mistake. And I have been seeing a lot of them," Ramos said. She added that remarks made by PFF president Johnny Romualdez regarding the FIFA’s and AFC national ratings system "was uncalled for." Romualdez had earlier said he did not put too much weight in the ratings because it does reflect the "real" performance level of its members. The Philippines is ranked No. 195 in the world and No 44 out 45 in Asia, just a rung above Guam. "The PFF should not put down the FIFA and AFC ratings. They should be respected," Ramos said. However, Ramos, a former Philippine Olympic Committee president, did not rule out offering her assistance to the PFF. "I am willing to do what I can to help the PFF and local football. This has been virtually my life. All they have to do is ask," she said.