Last night, we told you about the internal struggles within the FFB executive which were aired out at a meeting on Monday night. The divided executive had been having disputes for months, but recently, it was aggravated by the fiasco with the FFB stadium which was not suitable for the Champion's League.
CONCACAF pulled the Belmopan Bandits because Belize failed to meet the standards for Champion's League.
At the time of decision, President Ruperto Vicente was convinced that it was the wrong decision, and he wrote to CONCACAF to express his disappointment. But, after having a bit of time to digest it, does he still feel the same way? He told us last night, that he now accepts that the pitch would not have been ready in time:
Daniel Ortiz
"Do you still maintain that we would have been able to be ready?"
Ruperto Vicente - President, Football Federation of Belize
"Since then I have been convinced by CONCACAF that we would not have been and even Mr. Chanona advised. He said Ruperto count your loses, it is not possible. So lets count our lost now and prepare for next time. One of the things I had not expressed to you guys is that, yes I want to see our players play international matches and that's the reason I took on the responsibility of preparing this stadium for our players; But when you look at champion's league's regulations, any club or any team that will participate in champion's league must have it's own stadium. Failing that, then the state must provide that club with one. What I did, and maybe this is where I went wrong, is that I took a responsibility because I wanted to see international football played in this country and I remain steadfast in getting that done. Whatever happened, the reason for the pitch to not be completed, Mr. Otley has pledged that he will see that the pitch is completed. We could not have gotten it done this time for Bandits and we must apologize to the nation because yes, I thought I could have gotten it done and I believe had we not have the delays with the pitch."
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