COACH ERNIE AND MALDITAS : MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING ?

The Southeast Asian Games are over. Yet the controversies involving Coach Ernie Nierras and the Malditas continue.

For this post, I will simply focus on one of the controversies. That is, Coach Ernie's purchase of Monica Lee's airline ticket using a stolen credit card.

It is strange that Lee was able to reach US mainland without encountering any problem at all. It was only with her US domestic flight did she encounter a problem. Interestingly, Lee asked for a change in her flight schedule. She asked Coach Ernie for a change since she wanted to go home early. Had she decided to stick with the group booking, would she have had any problem at all ?

In her tweet, Lee said that Coach Ernie used a stolen card to buy her ticket. But in the same tweet conversation, she admitted that the airlines officials said that the card did not match the name of her coach. It that is so, how did she conclude that it was Coach Ernie who purchased her ticket ? And is it usual practice for a coach to buy tickets for his players ?

If the controversy is being made into a corruption case, why is the incident isolated ? To make a lot of money, Coach Nierras should have bought all the tickets of his players using stolen credit cards. And even if he did so, how will he make money ? Wouldn't he be caught red-handed anyway which could only mean his possible criminal liability and expulsion from the national team ?

The refusal of Monica Lee to file a complaint with the Philippine Football Federation is very strange as well. If she felt that she was an aggrieved party, why then does she not file a complaint with her national sport association to get justice ?

Could this controversy be a simple case of a player over-reacting to an incident ?  Could this be an issue that has been blown out of proportion ? Unless Monica Lee files a formal complaint with  PFF, this controversy is nothing more than a poor attempt to discredit a person who is extremely unpopular to a lot of people.