Last week the Ministry of Sports started its National Consultation on Football and it continues tomorrow in the city. The Ministry of Sports has been meeting with Club Owners, Sponsors, Coaches and footballers in an effort to get their concerns and suggestions on how to improve Football in Belize. But, lest they forget, football is the fiefdom of the FFB - which, coincidentally, is going to an election in a few weeks.
So is the ministry trying to tip the balance of power?
National Sports Administrator, Ismael 'Miley' Garcia discussed the consultation with Andrea Polanco:
Ismael "Miley" Garcia, National Sports Administrator
"We want to look at the infrastructure assessments needs and the second part of that consultation is also to talk about footballers, coaches and sponsors of football in general as to how to improve the sport and how to incorporate these opinions and ideas that we are getting from people into the national development plan for sports."
Andrea Polanco
"Some of these consultations with the municipalities are in no way trying to gain grounds in getting support to unseat the current president Mr. Bertie Chimilio?"
Ismael "Miley" Garcia, National Sports Administrator
"I think the minister in his meeting with Dr. Bertie Chimilio who is the president of the FFB, I think he clearly stated to him that it didn't matter to him if Dr. Chimilio was elected president of the federation as long as he could prove to the minister and to the nation that elections were held in a democratic fashion. We have not been able to avoid that topic, it comes up very strongly in the consultations and a number of opinions are being express. The minister has met with the president of both the FFB and the basketball federation early on when he got this ministry about 6 months ago and he outlined his position as minister of sports and our position as far as the election of any federation whether it be football or basketball or volleyball, any sport that is played in Belize that purports to represent the country of Belize locally or internationally that all these federations must operate within the confines with the national sports act so a lot of the comments that we are getting, the minister is taking these into account and he has clearly stated that as I said while he does intend to run a football or any other sport he wants to ensure that all these federations are following the law of Belize as far as it relates to sporting organizations. Certainly there is no attempt by the government or the minister of sports to unseat any candidate, as we understand it there is a contender that has mounted a challenge and I am just hearing that because I am in the ministry of sports and I have to be interested. We've heard that there is a contender and this morning we heard that that contender is saying that the football federation of Belize has informed him that his nomination was not accepted and so he may not be able to contest the elections."
From the Consultations, Garcia told us that the Minister of Sports has so far been able to travel and check some of the football stadiums, of which at least three will be upgraded to meet international standards. The elections for the FFB will be held on Saturday, December 18.
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