14/10/2026
This one’s a long read. Have a seat.
I have been advocating this for years: development must come first.
I appreciate Tom Byer’s perspective on football development in Southeast Asia. His message is relevant not only to football but to Philippine sports as a whole.
My five centavos on the matter: We cannot keep looking for quick fixes while neglecting the foundations of sports development.
And this brings me to an issue that deserves an honest conversation: the pay-to-play system.
We hear coaches and advocates of youth development speak against pay-to-play, emphasizing accessibility, grassroots participation, and opportunities for every child. Yet, in some cases, we later see camps and programs organized by those same advocates operating on a pay-to-play basis.
Is there a contradiction here?
To be clear, charging fees for a sports camp is not automatically wrong. Coaching requires time, expertise, equipment, facilities, and resources. Coaches deserve fair compensation for their work.
The real issue is not whether a camp charges a fee. It is whether meaningful sports development becomes accessible only to those who can afford it.
If we advocate inclusive development, our practices should reflect that principle. Are we creating opportunities for children who have the talent and passion but lack the financial means? Are we providing scholarships, community-based programs, and affordable entry points? Or are we unintentionally reinforcing the very barriers we claim to oppose?
should never become a privilege reserved for those who can pay.
As someone who has spent years teaching, coaching, and promoting grassroots and scholastic sports, I know we need to look beyond the number of camps we organize, the fees we collect, or the tournaments we win.
We need to examine the we create, the children we reach, and the sustainability of the pathways we build.
Perhaps it is time for all of us involved in sports development to honestly on our own practices. Do our programs truly reflect the values we promote? Are we creating opportunities for more children to participate, or are we simply creating more opportunities for those who can afford them?
There is nothing wrong with running a sustainable, fee-based sports program. But if we advocate development, we must also ask ourselves what we are doing to make that development accessible to others.
We can learn from other countries, invite foreign coaches, and adopt modern training methods. But without a genuine commitment to developing our own coaches, strengthening school sports, and making grassroots participation accessible, we will continue to struggle with the same fundamental problems.
Our advocacy must be reflected in our actions. Our principles must be consistent with our practices.
The question is not simply whether we are developing athletes. It is also whether we are developing a sporting system that gives more children a fair chance to participate, improve, and succeed.
That, for me, is what genuine sports development should be about.
