At the Amandala sports desk, we have been patiently awaiting the promised early press conference by FFB President, Dr. Bertie Chimilio, to discuss plans for next year’s World Cup eliminations and UNCAF U17 competition; but, instead, this morning we were surprised to receive a visit from one-time FFB Vice President, and presently an elected committee member of the FFB, Mr. Trenton Miller.
Trenton was the FFB Vice President for the first term of Dr. Chimilio’s presidency during the period 1997–2001, when, as Trenton recalls, the structural and administrative foundation was laid for the FFB, and which qualified it for FIFA funding to institute the Football Academy in Belmopan.
According to Trenton, at that time football was well administrated countrywide with an actively involved FFB executive with functioning branches in all districts, and the future looked bright for the development of football in Belize. The next step was to be the appointment of a full time Dean of the Football Academy to take it to the next level. Members of that executive included General Secretary Normando Luna and committee members Mr. Darius Daniels and Ms. Yolanda Rodriguez. Baxter Matthews was then, and still is the Treasurer.
Unfortunately, things fell apart in 2001, following the controversy involving Dr. Chimilio’s unilateral firing of popular Costa Rican coach Leroy Sherrier Lewis, who had a very positive impact on the Belizean national side. UNCAF had threatened sanctions because of comments made by Coach Lewis where he accused the referee of cheating the Belize team in an international match. The rest of the FFB executive was strongly against Chimilio’s action, and was shortly thereafter dissolved for new elections.
Disenchanted, Trenton left Belize for France, where he became actively involved with the French football federation, learning French along the way, and picking up a wealth of experience in the management of women’s football at various levels. He fondly recalls the dedicated and productive executive in Dr.Chimilio’s first term 1997-2001, and considers the administration of the present Dr. Chimilio-led FFB to be a far cry from the administration he knew in 1997-2001, although at the end there were signs of the problems to come.
On returning from France around the end of 2005, Trenton took up the management of his older brother Wayne’s Sand Box Restaurant in Caye Caulker until January of this year. He then moved back to Belize City, where he is presently the owner/manager of Stuart-Trent Adventure Tours.
Still very much interested in football, but concerned about all the negative reports he had been hearing, Trenton once again offered himself in March this year and was elected on Dr. Bertie Chimilio’s slate for Chimilio’s third term as FFB President. It was a very unpopular move to many football fans, who, including the Amandala sports desk, viewed the elections as a farce, with some electors chosen by Dr. Chimilio despite having no credibility or support from their football district. It was therefore with much skepticism that Mr. Miller was entertained by the Amandala sports desk to say whatever he wanted to say this morning.
Hopefully, Mr. Miller will have an opportunity to speak to the football nation of Belize sometime soon via radio and/or television. We cannot print all that Trenton has to say, but certainly it is a vindication of all that we have been saying here and suspecting for some time now.
Since April of this year, Mr. Miller, an elected committee member of the FFB, says he has not been invited to a single FFB executive meeting, and the announcement of the recently held U16 international tournament was as much a surprise to him as to football fans.
Shortly after being elected to the committee, he was assigned to women’s football, but quickly realized that he was left on a limb with no administrative or financial support. In short, since his re-entry into the FFB, Mr. Miller says, he is appalled at the total lack of administrative structure and programs under Dr. Chimilio’s one-man style leadership, and is presently formally requesting a special executive meeting to address the problem of “accountability and transparency” in the financial affairs of the FFB.
But what has sparked Mr. Miller to break his silence after five months of apparent acquiescence and/or submission to the dictatorial power of Dr. Chimilio? Had it taken that long for Trenton to be convinced that most of what he had heard about Dr. Chimilio’s leadership of the new FFB was indeed true? Undoubtedly, any would-be defector can be expected to be emboldened by the dismal performance of Dr. Chimilio’s FFB in the recent U16 tournament.
Apparently, the proberbial straw came when Mr. Miller took great umbrage to remarks made by Dr. Chimilio in an interview on WAVE TV before the U16 tournament, in which he claimed there was nobody else beside himself with the necessary knowledge and capability to administrate the sport of football in Belize, a comment which Mr. Miller thought offensive and insulting to himself and a number of others.
With signs of another executive battle looming on the horizon, Trenton shares the general feeling of most football fans in Belize that Belizean football has indeed hit rock bottom under the present leadership, and the only way forward has to be up. Belize is presently ranked last in the world by FIFA. At the Amandala sports desk, we sincerely dread the likelihood that yet another worthy challenger may find himself broadsided by Dr. Chimilio’s loyal “district chairmen” or clotheslined by CONCACAF when he attempts, on behalf of the football dreams of Belize, to dethrone the FFB dictator and put some vision, direction, order and hope back into Belizean football.