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Philippine Football Federation (PFF) President John Gutierrez and new interim Filipinas manager Fred Gonzalez. Photo from Rom Anzures, ABS-CBN News.

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Philippine Football Federation (PFF) President John Gutierrez and new interim Filipinas manager Fred Gonzalez. 

Romwel Anzures

ABS-CBN News

<div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);min-height:13.8px"><span></span><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1719819977498FullSizeRender.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Philippine Football Federation (PFF) President John Gutierrez and new interim Filipinas manager Fred Gonzalez. <em>Photo from Rom Anzures, ABS-CBN News.</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — The Philippine women&#x27;s national football team will be under new management moving forward.</p><p>This is following the decision of Filipinas team manager Jeff Cheng to step down from his post, citing that his and the Philippine Football Federation (PFF)&#x27;s goals and priorities &quot;do not align.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/6/23/jeff-cheng-exits-as-filipinas-team-manager-1436">READ: Jeff Cheng exits as Filipinas&#x27; team manager: &#x27;The situation is not workable&#x27;</a></div><p>In a press conference on Monday, PFF president John Gutierrez and National Teams Director Fred Gonzalez addressed what happened between the two parties.</p><p>&quot;In my recollection, there was a request for approval for a certain program, and we responded that we needed to sit down and discuss. And then to our surprise, we resigned,&quot; said Gutierrez in a press conference held at Studio 300 in Makati.</p><p>&quot;I think that&#x27;s pretty much all I can say. The Federation, not just me, wanted to discuss the activities, and that&#x27;s it,&quot; he added, while also dispelling the claims that there were people who opted to leave the federation and follow Cheng&#x27;s exit.</p><p>&quot;It is not true that people started resigning after Jeff resigned. I think we&#x27;ll recover just fine. Whatever preparation is needed will go on as scheduled. There&#x27;s not much I can say about it,&quot; Gutierrez said.</p><p>Meanwhile, Gonzalez shared his side and how he and Cheng discussed the successful manager&#x27;s exit.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/01/12/24/pff-names-freddy-gonzalez-as-director-of-national-teams">READ: PFF appoints Freddy Gonzalez as director of national teams</a></div><p>&quot;Jeff and I have been in constant contact since I started the job. It&#x27;s really unfortunate, what happened. I wanted him to stay, but I couldn&#x27;t make it work. We&#x27;ve tried and done things to continue with [him], but Jeff just decided in the end that he doesn&#x27;t want to do it anymore,&quot; revealed Gonzalez in a separate interview.</p><p>Gonzalez will now be serving as the interim manager of the women&#x27;s side aside from his managerial duties with the men&#x27;s national football team.</p><p>&quot;When I found out, it was really disappointing, and I just felt like we just wasted something really good,&quot; he added. &quot;But all the disappointment had to go out the door, and Jeff and I, we&#x27;ve been in touch. We just had a meeting this morning, and at some point, if he may want to come back, so we&#x27;ll see.&quot;</p><p>&quot;My department now, we&#x27;re not really so involved in the youth side of things, we&#x27;re more involved with the Under-22s and above. The technical youth department will be handling the youth moving forward, so Jeff might come back because he might want to support the senior team. So we&#x27;ll see. We&#x27;re always gonna be in touch this week especially since it&#x27;s gonna be a huge turnover.</p><p>&quot;But at the end of the day, I have to push forward and continue what he&#x27;s built and improve on it as well,&quot; Gonzalez continued. </p><p>It was under Cheng&#x27;s leadership that the Filipinas made history many times over in the past couple of years, culminating with a maiden appearance in the FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup 2023 where they memorably defeated co-host New Zealand in the group round.</p><p>The former national team player-turned-executive, who took the place of previous men&#x27;s team manager Dan Palami, also said that he has already been in touch with Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/01/09/24/football-dan-palami-steps-down-as-azkals-manager">READ: Dan Palami steps down as Azkals manager</a></div><p>&quot;I&#x27;ve been in touch with Mark since last week, and I told them that at the end of the day, you guys don&#x27;t have to worry about anything,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;If you talk to the men&#x27;s, the coaches, they&#x27;ll tell you exactly how we operate. Actually, that&#x27;s the least of anybody&#x27;s problems. The way we handle the men&#x27;s teams, we&#x27;re gonna handle the women&#x27;s the same.&quot;</p><p>&quot;They have the least to worry about, actually. I just have to review everything. I don&#x27;t really know the coaches, I didn&#x27;t select the coaches, so I don&#x27;t know how our goals are gonna match. From conversations I&#x27;ve had with Mark so far, he seems to be on the same page, but again, I have to review it.&quot;</p><p>However, much like how the PFF decided to part ways with previous PMNFT tactician Michael Weiss in favor of Tom Saintfiet, change is also possible in the Filipinas&#x27; staff. </p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/2/26/tom-saintfiet-named-new-head-coach-of-ph-men-s-team-1214">READ: Tom Saintfiet named new head coach of PH men&#x27;s team</a></div><p>&quot;Like I said earlier, we&#x27;ve reached a certain level in the women&#x27;s. From qualifying to the World Cup and winning a match, those are the minimum that we need to get. We&#x27;re not gonna get those every time, obviously, but we want to maintain that standard,&quot; Gonzalez said.</p><p>&quot;Whether or not the current setup and coaching staff are the ones who will take us there, it&#x27;s gonna be reviewed. I&#x27;m not saying that they&#x27;re gonna be let go, I want to make that clear. But like with anyone taking over, you have to review everything and see if they&#x27;re the right fit moving forward with what we want to achieve, because the fan expectations are really high.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s the same thing with the men&#x27;s. When we came in, Michael Weiss was the coach, but we felt that he didn&#x27;t have the same [goals]. Even if he said that he did, we felt that we needed somebody new to take us to the next level.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Again, it&#x27;s growing pains because we&#x27;re rebuilding a team. But we&#x27;re moving in the right direction,&quot; he explained. </p><p>For now, aside from looking for new sponsors for the Filipinas, Gonzalez said that their focus is restructuring the women&#x27;s management and staff. </p><p>&quot;When it comes to patrons or investors, they&#x27;ll be dealing directly with us. For example, I might not end up being the manager for both of the teams. I might just be overseeing the two managers. So it really depends on what structure we&#x27;re gonna go with moving forward, but the women&#x27;s are gonna have just as good of a staff as the men&#x27;s,&quot; he said. </p><div><ivs-player data-ivs-key="e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603" data-ivs-spid="3001339" data-ivs-vid="3060347"></ivs-player> <script src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/js/loader.js"></script></div>

<p>The Philippine women’s national football team will be under new management moving forward.</p>

The Philippine women’s national football team will be under new management moving forward.

Football: Changes possible in Filipinas, says new PWNFT interim manager Fred Gonzalez

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Football: Changes possible in Filipinas, says new PWNFT interim manager Fred Gonzalez

Romwel Anzures,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 01, 2024 05:51 PM PHT

Read More:

Football

ABSSports

Philippine Football Federation

Filipinas

PFF

Fred Gonzalez

John Gutierrez

Dan Palami

Jeff Cheng

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