Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 1) — After winning by a landslide, newly elected Philippine Football Federation (PFF) President John Gutierrez vowed to leave no stone unturned as he aims to further elevate the level of football in the country.
The Filipino sportsman and entrepreneur said under his term, he aims to work from the ground up by focusing on their youth and grassroots development programs.
It includes assembling a technical team that will create a standard training curriculum that will be applied through the Department of Education and regional football associations nationwide, he added.
Gutierrez also aims to bridge the training gap between homegrown and Filipino-foreign players in the national team.
“Players developed outside the country are only better than us only because of the resources that they get, not because of the physical makeup, not because they are better off financially, no,” he said.
“Tigilan na natin ‘yung (let’s stop the mentality) ‘we have so much fil-foreigners in that team we need more pure Filipinos’— Filipinos are Filipinos. Ang pinaglalaban natin dito is we have more of the homegrown talents in the national squads,” he added.
To effectively train the team, Gutierrez said the new training methods that will be implemented by the football officials would have to be provided soon.
“Who are going to teach these players to get to that level? The coaches and the blind cannot lead the blind, so we will have to get these coaches, referees, match commissioners all officials in football up to speed on the new training methods, the new way of playing the game,” he said.
Gutierrez succeeds Nonong Araneta, who served as PFF’s president from 2010 to 2023. During Araneta’s time, the Philippine women’s team clinched a historic FIFA Women’s World Cup appearance and the Azkals reached the Asian Cup.
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