Four members of the Philippine Azkals are allegedly involved in a rape scandal, at least that's what the rumors currently spreading on the internet says.
The "scandal" started as a blind item in which four athletes were the subject. According to the blind item, these four athletes got drunk one night and took home a random girl from a bar. One of them took a video of "what they did" which the girl somehow found out when they woke up the following morning. The four athletes denied the video and threw the girl outside the house.
It was recently "reported" that the girl have already filed charges against the four athletes.
The four athletes allegedly involved were eventually named as Neil Etheridge, Anton Del Rosario, Jason Sabio, and Simon Greatwich. This became harder to disregard when actress Michelle Madrigal, who is friends with some members of the Azkals, tweeted something that many believed was with regards to the alleged rape scandal.
Michelle Madrigal tweeted: "People should stop assuming..I'm friends with neil,simon n anton.wala naman kayong alam kaya sana wag kayo gumawa ng kwento.don't hate coz I'm cool w them!to all the fans I'm NOT dating neil etheridge.I don't normally care about what people say but your words are hurting me deeply.thank u n godbless!
The gang rape scandal has also reached the pages of Bandera, a local tabloid. The tabloid said that the former Philippine Football Federation consultant Paul Weiler e-mailed them with the details of the gang rape as related to him by the Azkals' head coach himself, Michael Weiss. He also had screenshots of his Facebook conversation with Neil Etheridge regarding the gang rape.
24 Oras recently had a chance to talk to the Azkals and Team Manager Dan Palami had this to say: "Before we judge or before we post anything siguraduhin natin 'yong facts because maraming taong naaapektuhan. And, of course, on our side we wanna make sure na kung may katotohanan man we will not tolerate it... But on the other hand kung ang basis ko lang naman is statement ng isang nagpapanggap na consultant at saka isang blog, medyo mahihirapan ako mag-take ng actions just based on those things."
In a live interview with Mel Tiangco, the Team Manager said that he already talked to the players regarding the matter the first time he heard about it. Those who were allegedly involved in the controversy denied it.
Paul Weiler was a consultant for the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) some ten years ago under the administration of that time. Palami said he had already met Weiler who wanted to apply to again become PFF's consultant, but the Team Manager told him they didn't have that kind of position. Palami thought being rejected to become part of the team motivated Paul Weiler to put the Azkals down through "scandals" like this.
Meanwhile, Team Captain Aly Borromeo, said "I think there's a few people out there who just wanna take away the limelight off the Azkals and it's a shame for people like that in the Philippines."
Let's just hope that this controversy doesn't affect their match against Kuwait in teh second round of the 2014 World Cup Asia qualifiers. They will fly to Bahrain this weekend to begin their acclimatization for their away game in Hawalli, Kuwait on July 23. The second leg of the game will be held here in Manila on July 28.
