Looking back
2010 ended, and 2011 began with football in deep crisis in Belize. The fomenting discontent in the sport had led the newly appointed Minister of Sports, Hon. John Saldivar, to make a personal fact-finding tour of the country, to get a first hand idea of the problems faced by sports in general and football in particular. What he found was most troubling.
Sensing that the growing disturbance and dissatisfaction in the football community was getting attention at the highest levels, the FFB’s incumbent 12-year president, Dr. Bertie Chimilio embarked on a plan.
Early elections
The last FFB elections, described as a farce by many members of the “football family,” were held on March 24 of 2007; and it was for a 4-year term. So, FFB elections were actually not due until March, 2011. But there were other distractions. Reports indicated there were some very “big bucks” suddenly rolling around the coffers of the FFB. FIFA had declared huge profits from its 2010 World Cup, and had voted a handsome bonus for each national federation. This was in addition to the annual FAP (Football Assistance Program) whereby FIFA gave the FFB the equivalent of Bze $500,000.00 each year. The bonus approved by FIFA in 2010 would give the FFB an additional Bze $500,000.00 around the end of the year, and then another additional Bze $600,000.00 sometime around March of 2011. That’s a lot of money to be lying around an Executive in serious risk of losing an election. (This was later confirmed at the 61st FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, held on May 31 and June 1, 2011, where FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter stated: “Thanks to the conservative and careful financial policies that we followed in the 2007- 2010 period, we have been able to considerably increase our investment in football development programmes, and in 2010, we were able to give each member association a total extraordinary FAP payment of USD 550,000.”)
How the FFB elections were won in 2007
How Dr. Bertie Chimilio had secured the 2007 victory in FFB elections was simple. He had appointed the chairmen of the various district associations who would vote in his election. Although a number of these district associations rejected his appointed chairmen (Cayo, Belmopan and Stann Creek), and proceeded to elect their own chairmen, Chimilio still refused to recognize them. So, he won his election, with his appointed chairmen all voting for him. This was the major source of the discontent that Minister Saldivar found on his tour of the districts in 2010.
Extraordinary Congress in 2010
So, Dr. Bertie embarked on his plan. Suddenly and unprecedentedly, in early September of 2010, all 7 district association chairmen signed a letter requesting an “Extraordinary Congress” for one specific purpose – to hold FFB elections. Some football competitions were still in full swing, and everyone was caught off guard.
BPFL Chairman Sergio Chuc got wind of the activity, and he joined the bandwagon, signing along with the 7 district chairmen, to approve the holding of the extraordinary congress. But Chuc also had a plan. He then also entered a slate of candidates, nominated by his BPFL, to challenge Dr. Chimilio in the elections set for December 18, 2010.
Few in the football family thought Chuc stood any chance in the elections. There had been rumors in 2007 of “fiscal incentives” to district associations to encourage them to support the FFB Executive incumbents; indications were that the same might occur in December, 2010.
But the Doc was not about to leave anything to chance. Chuc’s candidacy was rejected on some flimsy technicality. The December 18, 2010, elections were therefore going to be an “endorsement” affair. Football people cried foul again. And Minister Saldivar said enough is enough.
FFB ignores Ministry’s request to postpone “endorsement”
The Minister, via a Ministry of Sports press release on Friday, December 17, expressed his “concern over the insistence of the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) to proceed with the election of its Executive on Saturday, December 18.” The release also said that the Minister had “written to the FFB informing them of the findings of his consultation tour and the apparent violation of the FFB statutes in the selection of delegates to vote in the election.”
Notwithstanding the Ministry’s stern request, the FFB went ahead with its “endorsement” elections on Saturday, December 18, 2010.
Ministry appoints Sports Investigations Committee
But that would not be the end of that. The sequence of events that followed, have brought us to where we are today, with new elections completed in all but one district association, the new Top League elections being held tonight in Belmopan, and new FFB Executive elections due to be held in March, 2012.
The ball started rolling in the direction of change early in January of 2011, with the Ministry of Sports press release on January 4 revealing that “Hon. John Saldivar, has signed a Statutory Instrument cited as the Sports (Investigations Commiteee) Order 2010. This instrument appoints a Committee to investigate specific matters relating to elections of the Football Federation of Belize.” The committee, consisting of Chairman Mr. Joseph McGann and members Mr. Gerald Henry and Mr. Oswald Twist, was mandated “to submit the report of its findings no later than 28th January, 2011.”
Because of lack of cooperation by some members of the FFB, the Investigations Committee report was not delivered on schedule. But in the meantime there were other developments.
FIFA President visits, supports FFB
FIFA President Sepp Blatter paid a courtesy visit to Belize on April 13, and met briefly with Prime Minister Dean Barrow, where he voiced his 100% support for FFB President Dr. Bertie Chimilio. In a press conference afterwards, Blatter said the P.M. did bring up his government’s problem with the FFB, but, according to Blatter, “it is a small problem, an internal problem, and it has to be settled internally.” So much for FIFA’s attention to our football plight in Belize.
Sports Council begins to “check” FFB
On April 15, a National Sports Council press release suggested that things had really soured between the FFB and the Ministry of Sports. Apparently, the FFB had refused to register its organization with the Sports Council in the New Year as required by law. The release read: “On March 8, 2011, the Council sent out a reminder to all sporting organizations extending the January registration deadline to March 31. This date was further extended by a correspondence of March 31, which set the final date for registration as April 14. With the deadline now expired, the Council will now enforce the regulations as stipulated in the Sports Act regarding the use of facilities.” And it did. Since the FFB remained in violation, their affiliate, the BPFL, whose new competition in 2011 started with only 4 teams, had to play both its scheduled games on Sunday, April 17, at the FFB Field in Belmopan.
BPFL withdraws from FFB, again
In the midst of this squabble between the Ministry of Sports and the FFB, in which the BPFL was a helpless victim, the relations soured once more between the FFB and the BPFL, whose Commissioner Sergio Chuc informed the FFB by email on Thursday, May 12, and copied to our newspaper, that “we are not interested in continuing to be part of the FFB. We have found over the years that the President is very deceptive, arrogant and lacks the best interest of the game.”
Sports Investigations Committee report now in
The Sports Investigations Committee’s report was submitted sometime in early June, and reports were that it was very damning to the FFB; but it was not released to the public. Nevertheless, it must have strengthened the hand of the Government. Belize was due to play its World Cup Qualifier opener on June 15 against Montserrat.
Ministry puts down its foot
With the FFB bosses still defiant in their non-compliance with the Sports Act of the Laws of Belize, the Ministry of Sports, in a press release of June 8 stated: “As a consequence, the Ministry has informed the Football Federation of Belize that their federation ‘is not authorized to represent this country in any local or international competition or in any other forum for football on behalf of the government, people and nation of Belize.’” Both regional associations UNCAF and CONCACAF, as well as the President of FIFA were informed of the government’s position.
FIFA suspends FFB
Still defiant, the FFB’s Belize team played its first World Cup Qualifier and won, 5-2, against Montserrat on June 15 in Trinidad. But when the Montserrat team landed in Belize on Friday, June 17, for their Sunday, June 19, return match at the FFB Stadium, the Ministry of Sports had informed FIFA that it was not guaranteeing security for the team. The “die was cast”, and FIFA had to take action. On the same day, FIFA announced its decision “to suspend the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) with immediate effect…” “…due to the interference of the government of Belize…” “The suspension will be in place until the Belize government reverses its decision.” Finally, Belize had gotten the attention of FIFA where our “internal football problem” was concerned. Discussions began.
Suspension provisionally lifted
On July 7, 2011, a FIFA press release stated that “The FIFA Emergency Committee has decided today, July 7, 2011, to provisionally lift until 15 August the suspension of the Football Federation of Belize (FFB)…” The return match would “now be played before July 17, 2011, outside of Belize (in order to avoid the risk of the Belizean authorities not providing security guarantees, as was the case for the game originally scheduled…” “The Emergency Committee has decided that, should the FFB not be able to definitively settle the issues at stake with the authorities by August 15, 2011, then the suspension of the FFB would be automatically reinstated.”
The games resumed, but we won’t dwell on the disappointing details, except to note that Belize’s striker Deon McCaulay made his mark as the leading scorer in the World Cup Qualifiers with 11 goals.
FIFA Roadmap agreement
On August 2, the Ministry of Sports press release stated that: “The Hon. John Saldivar and his team met with FIFA/UNCAF representatives in Belmopan this afternoon…” “..The discussions centered around a proposed timeline to resolve the current football situation, as agreed on the FIFA team’s first visit.” “…the Roadmap proposes the finalization, within the next two days, of a draft FIFA approved statutes and a FIFA approved electoral code to be worked out by the delegation and the FFB.” “…it also states that the FFB must organise new elections – managed by the newly elected Electoral Commission – before 10 December, 2011.” By signing the Roadmap, the Government of Belize agreed to “allow FFB to carry out its duties unimpeded during this process, i.e. until the December 2011 elections have been carried out.”
M.O.U. signed
This was followed on August 12 by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U.) between the National Sports Council and the FFB. In the press release giving details of the M.O.U., “The Minister further stated that ‘given the commitment to transparency and accountability and the goodwill and spirit of compromise exhibited by FIFA officials in the recent discussions we have a renewed confidence in the integrity of the process initiated and supervised by FIFA.’”
No smooth sailing
Of course, the roadmap has turned out to be a bumpy ride for the “football family” of Belize. The incumbents are not about to give up without a fight.
Six of the seven district football association elections have been completed. The incumbent chairman won in Toledo. The incumbent also won in Belmopan, where the challenging slate members were all disqualified from participating in the elections because of a technicality. The challengers won in Stann Creek, Cayo and Orange Walk. But in Belize City, while a challenger won the chairmanship, all others elected, including the vice-chairman and the three members, were part of the incumbent slate. Again there were “technical” problems in the Belize District election. So the score could technically still turn out to be 3-3 so far. Corozal would have gone to the incumbents, since they had already disqualified the challenging slate, on another “technicality”; but someone must have reached the ear of FIFA, who intervened and ordered a postponement of the Corozal election. Tonight, the Top League elections are presently going on in Belmopan. That is for six votes, which could turn the scale either way. The problem there is that some League members are not one hundred percent sure which of the two slates, if any, are undercover supporters of Dr. Chimilio. With so much at stake for the incumbents, and so much FIFA “gold” at their disposal, some real character assessment and scrutiny will take place tonight. The best case scenario is that all are for the change, and will commit to working together to see that the entrenched FFB dictatorship ends in 2012.
We await the news of results from Belmopan.