An unexpected dilemma

One of the things that made the Governor’s Cup tournament highly successful is because the mayors really got involved in it and not just through the forming of their teams. Most, if not all of them, had their trusted guys, right-hand men for some, in the forming of their teams since they wanted theirs to be as good as possible, lest their towns be embarrassed by a lackadaisical showing of a squad that bears the town’s name.

And here lies a problem for the two-year-old Governor’s Cup, whose third season is seen to surpass the first two.

Next year is an election year and aside from the usual tournament dates getting caught smack in the middle of campaign season, the usual pre-tournament activities will also be the time when the trusted men of the mayors will be busy consolidating their political stock.

Organizers say that the Governor’s Cup has become the center of most local government units’ sports calendar that some are holding local eliminations of their own—inter-barangay meets--to help identify a town’s or city’s players in the province’s biggest competition. Factor in the 2019 local elections and the usual pre-tournament preparations could either be politicized or sidelined; either way, it won’t be good for the tournament.

So, what to do? Then there’s the schedule. This year, the event started in February and ended in July. Because of the scope, the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission needed six months to hold it.

That’s in the middle of campaign season and isn’t there a Comelec ban on expenses during those months? Running the Governor’s Cup is costly, with the province providing subsidies to the participating teams aside from offering the biggest prizes that I know of in an LGU-run competition.

And if the Governor’s Cup organizers decide to hold their tournament months earlier than usual, there’s the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. and other tournaments that it may run in conflict with. There are the various rungs of the DepEd meets—the unit and municipal meets plus the provincial meet—and the Cviraa. All these tournaments also use the same age group as the Governors Cup.

Finding a solution is akin to finding the answer to the Gregorian knot. A situation I don’t envy the organizers.

“Ambot lagi, unsaon ni,” CPSC executive director Atty. Ramil Abing told me a few weeks ago. “But we’re confident naa ra ni makit-an nga solution.” Given the size of the crowds in the various venues in the last edition, and the number of players who got discovered thanks to this, I hope they do find a solution. The fans have learned to look forward to watching home games, which usually feature packed crowds, the sort of which make a politico’s wet dream.

I expect some mayors might use their local elims to kick off their campaigns; heck there’s always an increase in the number of mayor’s cups come election season. I just hope though political colors won’t affect their local events.

The tournament has become inclusive, some sort of a unifying factor in the province. It would be a pity politics would change that.