And while that issue is now in the foreground, shadowing it in the back is what we reported last night: that the team refused to play the final international friendly against a selection from Melchor until certain matters were settled – eventually taking the field over three hours late. And reports are that they only agreed to play after an agreement was reached between them and the FFB executive.
Additionally, we got credible reports saying that that the team threw out the suggestion that they were prepared to go as far as not getting onto the plane tomorrow.
We still don't know how strong that threat was, but today, FFB President Ruperto Vicente was asked about our report. He categorically denied it, saying that the players never intended to endanger this very major opportunity.
Here's what he said:
Ruperto Vicente - President, Football Federation of Belize
"We had a meeting with them yesterday because they were concerned about their finances and so we have assured them that they are going to be getting their monies and they have asked for a little bit more, they were going to get $50usd per day and now they will be getting a stypen of 75US dollars per day and at game time we have gone up from 200USdollars per game to 250US dollars per game. Then if we move on to the second round of tournament there's additional monies that is going to come to the federation as a result of qualifying to the second round, we have agreed with the players that we will give them 50% of that extra monies, once we qualify to the second round.
The players were very concerned because they had wanted an agreement, a contract. I was reluctant to give them a contract not knowing how much money we were going to be raising, and there is no way I would give them a contract or promise them anything not knowing what I have. I am not going to do that. I will not promise players anything if I know I cannot get it to them, but we manage to reach a compromise with the players and to assure them as well that what we have promised at this point, we will get to them. We had a game scheduled yesterday against a team from Melchor and they threatened not to play that game if we didn't come that an agreement with them. The world cup was never at risk and I believe the players will never put that at risk because it is an opportunity for them"
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