Azkals leave Monday for 3-country swing

With suspensions on its coach and one of its key players looming, the Philippine football team leaves for Cambodia today to start a three-country swing in preparation for the AFF Suzuki Cup in November.

German coach Michael Weiss will still travel with the Azkals as he files an appeal to rescind a two-match suspension meted by the Philippine Football Federation Disciplinary Committee for a “failure in leadership” during the Philippines-Malaysia friendly last February.

James Younghusband, who skippered the team in the match, is also expected to appeal the decision that rules him out from the match against Cambodia on Wednesday.

The committee had earlier cleared Lexton Moy and Angel Guirado from the sexual harassment complaint filed by Football Confederation match commissioner Cristy Ramos, but still sanctioned members of the side for what it described as “breakdown in discipline” during the prematch inspection.

“I don’t get the point so much because first of all the people in the locker room have been given the tasks to look after the team in case I’m absent,” Weiss told the Inquirer. “We are a team that works well so there’s no necessity for the coach to be with his players all the time like a kindergarten teacher.”

The Azkals, whose members conducted a clinic yesterday at Philsports in Pasig as part of the launching of the 1 Goal for Peace program of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process, face Singapore on Friday and Laos on Sept. 10. Cedelf P. Tupas