from Silk Caye to FFB
BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 9, 2022
Our football executives and technical officials of the Football Federation of Belize (FFB), who are authorized with FIFA funding as the official football representatives of the nation of Belize, have a slogan which they use in response to frustrated fans lamenting the repeated losses in international competition. They say fans should “believe in the process” and understand that the process takes time, as young players are being taught the right things, and soon will be able to demonstrate their new skills and talents in regional competition. But they have been saying this for some years now, and fans are getting impatient; just like the tour guides and citizens of Placencia got fed up with the lack of official action to address the dwindling land mass of Silk Caye and decided on an organic Belizean approach to save the island. Perhaps it is time that we all begin to “believe in Belize” by designing our own solutions to major problems that confront us, rather than looking outside for “experts” and “consultants” and “foreign coaches” to tell us what is good for us.
There appeared to be some gains in an UNCAF (Central American Union) U18 football tournament in Costa Rica in 2019, where Belize garnered Silver. A year previous to that, Belize had placed last in the 2018 U19 UNCAF tournament held in Honduras. Most recently, with our two new FIFA-approved stadiums in Belmopan, Belize got a chance to host the biennial 2022 UNCAF U19 (the 2020 UNCAF U19 was cancelled due to Covid-19), but we promptly fell back into last place, despite the addition of a not so highly rated invitee, Puerto Rico, from the Caribbean into the tournament this year. The FFB was able to deflect the harsh criticism from some quarters with the legitimate argument that Belize endured almost two years of inactivity in football competition due to Covid, and so we are currently in a catch-up mode with the rest of countries who continued playing football.
Nevertheless, having been able to witness our National U19 team perform in four games at home over the recent week-long UNCAF U19 tournament, drawing once and losing three times, a number of veterans, including some 1970s Belizean legends who were guests of the FFB at the El Salvador game that Belize lost 5-1, were not impressed with our Belize team’s performance. And it was not just the scores that concerned them. The team’s game was not solid, to put it mildly. The fact that it was Belizean coaches that had led the Belize U18 to Silver in 2018, while a foreign head coach led the team to the dismal showing in 2022, has prompted quite a few fans to question the wisdom of investing large sums on foreign coaches, when our local coaches have done as well or better.
Another FFB argument, offered by executive Marlon Kuylen on Krem’s WUB show last Monday, that our team is currently in the process of learning a new system (interrupted by Covid) developed by an American coach that has proven enormously successful in top level competition in the U.S., is little comfort to frustrated football fans. For all the FIFA funds invested in training of coaches and officials over the years, in building nice stadiums for hosting international games, it seems that everything is in place except the product that we put on the field in our national colors. Some fans have questioned the recruitment process, if the best talent is being selected from across the country without any favoritism entering the process. There have been rumors in the past of very talented players from impoverished backgrounds not being able to meet the travelling requirements for FFB tryouts; others have been rejected due to discipline issues. Understanding players’ backgrounds and being able to communicate with them in their “language” is sometimes an important asset for a successful coach, and is perhaps why Costa Rican Leroy Sherrier Lewis (R.I.P.) achieved the greatest success with a Belize selection to date.
The problem with “believing in the process” for Belizean football fans, is that time is passing by, every year a crop of young players is getting older, but the process seems to be taking too long to bear fruit. Already, the U18 group that won Silver in 2019 are now in the U23 or senior category.
Development is a continual process, and our primary school football program has been such an absolute disaster for years, that it is really amazing that there have still surfaced a few highly talented and skilled young players to form our national U17 or U19 teams. What that proves is that, despite the woeful lack of structure and support in our primary-school-age program, Belize still has an abundance of football talent. And the heroes are the many neighborhood and community activist coaches who volunteer their time and limited expertise in coaching youth teams in neighborhood marathons, or taking them on the road to play games in the rural villages or in other districts. But they are often ill-equipped for the task, and the tournaments are way too short.
Recently, the National Sports Council, which has for years taken on the responsibility of conducting the primary school football tournaments, has partnered with the FFB in trying to upgrade the skills of coaches and improve the primary and high schools competition formats. Amazingly, there have been annual primary school competitions where certain schools declined participating, while others played a regular season schedule of as little as 5 games, with only group winners going a few games more in the playoffs. How can youth football develop with such few games played?
In decades past, mid-1970s and before, primary school football used to be a raging cauldron of youth competition enthusiastically supported and attended by parents and other adult fans. And the teams were usually coached by volunteer senior players who contributed the best of their playing experience and knowledge to the youngsters, and were intimately involved when primary school games were taking place in the evenings after school, beginning around 4:15 p.m.
“Progress brings problems,” and on the road to Independence and thereafter many changes occurred that drastically affected the primary school program. For starters, the games are played much earlier now, from 1:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m., while the adult working hours, following the trend of Belmopan, end later in the evening, with most departments and businesses opening until 5:00 p.m. daily. These are some of the most critical formative years of young players; but they play to miniscule audiences of a few schoolmates given special permission to witness the games, while most adult footballers with great knowledge and skills to impart to the youngsters are themselves occupied on their jobs during this time. As a result, often the youths are assisted by a zealous citizen who does not have good football credentials; and thus an opportunity is lost for the best football habits, skills and discipline to be properly nurtured and developed.
Time is passing by, erosion continues, bad habits become entrenched, and all the foreign coaches have run up against the same problem, which makes “believing in the process” seem futile to frustrated football fans, as the situation at Silk Caye appeared to Belizeans in the south. Like those stalwart citizens did last weekend at Silk Caye, perhaps it is time for the FFB to begin “believing in Belize” and engage our homegrown football legends to help develop our own Belizean football system, utilizing all the foreign expertise, but mixing it with our Belizean flavor and style, so that others will have their hands full figuring out how to deal with us. And for sure, that plan will have to begin with the fundamentals, which is our primary school football program.