Light at the end of tunnel for Borromeo and Schrock

“WE have life.”

That was the initial reaction of Philippine Football Federation (PFF) officials following a reply by the Asian Football Confederation (AFP) to the request for the rescission of the two cautions meted Azkals captain Aly Borromeo and midfielder Stephan Schrock.

Borromeo and Schrock got yellow cards during the Azkals’ July 3 match against Sri Lanka, which they won 4-0 and 5-1 on aggregate.

While the win put the Philippines in the second round of the Asian Qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, the yellow cards levied on Borromeo and Schrock in consecutive matches means they will miss the Azkals’ away match versus Kuwait on July 23.

The PFF sent a letter of appeal on July 6 to the Competitions Committee of the AFC asking for consideration on the cautions considering that Kuwait did not have to go through a first-round qualifiers and Al-Azraq (The Blues as the Kuwaiti team is nicknamed) remains intact for the crucial match.

On Monday the PFF received a letter from the AFC’s General Secretary Alex Soosay, who wrote: “Kindly be informed that pursuant to Article 35 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code, the sanctions arising under the said qualifiers are registered by the Fifa Disciplinary Committee. Therefore pursuant to Article 17 par. 3 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code, ‘the Fifa Disciplinary Committee may exceptionally depart from or amend this rule before the start of a particular competition. As such, we would advise your good Federation to address your request to Fifa.’”

“At least it wasn’t a no,” said Home Match Local Organizing Committee chairman Bonnie Ladrido of the AFC’s reply.

“That is an interesting development,” said Azkals Hans Michael Weiss. “Let’s hope Fifa will allow it in the spirit of fair play.”

The Philippine team departs for Bahrain on Thursday for a pair of friendly matches with the host country’s Olympic team before flying to Kuwait City for the July 23 game. The Azkals return home the day after and in time for the home match on July 28 at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Rick Olivarez, Business Mirror