MANILA, Philippines – After being in hot water for several months, Global FC owner Mark Jarvis is committing to pay the salaries the team owes its players and staff for as long as 8 months. 

“We’re addressing the issues of the players past and present. We’re planning part-payments over two months – in waves – to pay the players off,” Jarvis told reporters on Tuesday, February 12. (READ: Broken promises: Why Global Cebu players are unhappy)

“It’s been a tough couple of months. This is to start 2019 with a clear and positive look.” 

At the start of February 2019, Global player Anton del Rosario revealed the names and how long the mentioned players and staff have not been receiving compensation from the club. 

The Philippine Premier League (PPL) is monitoring Global – now renamed United Makati FC following the results of a Facebook poll – as the club is mandated to pay out its debts before the league kicks off at the end of March 2019. 

Noncompliance would forfeit the club’s entry to the new top tier football league of the Philippines. 

According to Jarvis, the reason why the payments were delayed was because the club sponsors of the 2018 Philippines Football League season have not completely paid their dues.

But Jarvis promised that the Makati-based team will enforce programs to keep the club financially sustainable in the inaugural PPL season together with its partner MMC Sportz.

This has resulted to the re-signing of 7 to 8 players and head coach Dragutin Stević-Ranković, while new talents are coming in to see action in the country’s professional club football league. 

United Makati looks to activate the fans in its locality, work together with the local government, and tap Makati-based businesses to prevent the poor financial situation that unfolded in 2018. 

“We’re going to have a meeting with the new league management and to see how the commercial rights can be distributed, then we create a program to take advantage of the fellowship of the fans,” MMC Sportz Asia CEO Eric Gottschalk said. 

“Everything will be related to United Makati and we will help the league to grow. We have support from the highest authority of the Makati government.” 

In turn, the club which will be based in University of Makati will continue providing its grassroots program catered to the Makati community, with a goal to eventually pull in the country’s talents to their youth and professional teams. 

The focus on the grassroots level has also led Jarvis to put a salary cap on the club’s players.

As Global FC, the club has won 3 national titles in the United Football League, has seen action in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup thrice, and nailed an AFC Champions League berth once in 2017. – Rappler.com