BELIZE CITY, Sun. July 21, 2024
The newly built Belize Civic Center was inaugurated with a semipro basketball game in May of 2018, and since then the flagship sports auditorium in the commercial capital, Belize City, has accommodated a few international volleyball tournaments, where Belize won Silver a couple years ago; and yesterday it was a crowning glory for the Belize U21 Women’s National Volleyball Team, who went undefeated (not losing a single set) on their way to the Gold medal in the 2024 Central American U21 Women Volleyball Championships. They culminated their undefeated streak with a straight-sets (3-0) victory over our western neighbors and defending champions, Guatemala. Back in 1974, it was in softball that our Belizean national women softball team won the Gold medal victory in the Central American and Caribbean games. In 1998, our young men won Gold in the Caricom Basketball Championships, but that was at the old Civic Center, which was a virtual oven for fans and players alike. It was after that victory that then prime minister Dean Barrow promised a “state of the art” facility, which was realized a decade later. In softball, volleyball, and basketball, our male and female athletes have made their mark in the region, and yesterday was extra special, the final victory coming against “you know who”. According to the tournament rules, Belize had reportedly already clinched the Gold, having not conceded a set up to that point, while every other team, including Guatemala, had lost a match; but the Gold would not have been as sweet with a loss to Guatemala at the end, and our girls took good care of business. It was a special feeling for Belizeans at the Civic and those watching on T.V., and many joined in the singing of the Belize national anthem as it was played only for the champions, Belize, to climax the post-game ceremonies. It felt great, but something is missing. There is still a longing inside the hearts of Belizean football fans, as our number one sport, football, has yet to ignite the nation with anything near that level of achievement in regional competition.
Leadership, for sure, has a lot to do with achievement in sports, and the pundits recall the outstanding and dedicated softball coaches in the 1970s; men like Collet Gill, Charles Solis and Raymond Lashley come to mind. The 1998 men’s basketball national team was built on the shoulders of a strong semipro basketball league with good help from foreign-based Belizean players, and a contracted former NBA player, David Greenwood, as head coach of the team, along with support from our own Clinton “Pulu” Lightburn. And for our volleyball girls, much credit must be given to the leadership of association president Allan Sharp, Cuban coach Jose Fontes, and also to the groundwork of coaching at the high school level by Miss Lupita Quan, whose SCA teams have been perennial champions. Unfortunately, in football all we have had to celebrate, since our membership in FIFA in 1986, are momentary flashes of success in a few games over the years.
Perhaps the best achievement of our Belize national male football team was qualifying to the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament in 2013, where we were soundly trashed by the USA, 6-1, and Cuba, 4-0, but managed a respectable 1-0 loss to Costa Rica. Since then, however, it has been all tears for Belize’s football fans when our national male team takes the field in international competition. For now, the Gold Cup is momentarily out of reach of our male national team, as we will need to win our group in League C, to which we have been relegated, before we can advance back to League B, where the real competition takes place to reach the Gold Cup tournament. And in the FIFA World Cup qualifying games, it has been all bad news, as already our male team has lost 2 games in our 5-member group, with 2 games remaining, and only the top 2 teams will advance to the next round of elimination. Nicaragua beat Belize, 4-0, at our FFB Stadium on Saturday, June 8; and then Guyana defeated Belize, 3-1, in Bridgetown, Barbados on Tuesday, June 11. In last place along with Montserrat with 0 points in our Group D, and both Nicaragua and Panama leading the group with 6 points apiece, followed by Guyana with 3 pts, Belize and Montserrat are practically out of contention for the top 2 spots to advance to the next round. However, we have to wait until next year June to get our exit orders, as Belize travels to Montserrat to play on June 4, 2025; and then Belize hosts powerhouse Panama on June 7, 2025. If Belize football at the national team level manages to turn things around by then, we can only hope to save face with a good showing; but qualifying to the next round is out of the question.
Just last Friday, the FFB announced that it had terminated the contract of national team coach, David Perez Asensio (from Spain), but no replacement has yet been announced. There have been a number of national team coaches over the years, both local and foreign, and the best record has been achieved by the late Costa Rican, Leroy Sherrier Lewis, who led Belize’s qualification to the 2013 Gold Cup, but couldn’t accompany the team to Texas reportedly because of passport difficulties.
That one Gold Cup qualification achievement was made during the FFB presidency of Ruperto Vicente, a former first division player himself. He was replaced in a contentious election in December 2017 by Sergio Chuc, who remains FFB president and is also now a vice-president of Concacaf. Belize is in the good books with FIFA, which continues its strong financial support for football, and especially female football development in Belize. But, while our females have been making some progress, football fans are very wary of the results and the performance of our male national team. They keep “believing in the process”, as advised by FFB Technical Director, Phillip Marin; but the process has been long, and not very fruitful so far.
Something must be wrong, because no one can deny that Belize has talent. Perhaps, there was a clue to this dilemma in whatever the three striking national team players had to say, why they reportedly announced their boycott of the Nicaragua game some five hours before kickoff. The FFB promised some disciplinary action, but there has been no reports of such. Whatever is wrong with the coaching or the managing of our national team, fans want it fixed, just like we keep crying for action with the neglected MCC. Is there a systemic problem in our whole football administration? How do you explain to Belize City’s Yabra FC U17 youths who have played the competitions hosted by the local district association, and won, undefeated, only to be told by the FFB that they cannot represent the district in the national competition, because their district F.A. failed to host an opening season tournament? Something is sick in our Belize football, and it translates to our continued disappointment in our international showing.
All Belizeans join in celebrating our Gold-medal-winning volleyball national team. Our young women have done the Jewel proud again. Big congratulations are in order for volleyball, while we cry for football, especially the young men from deprived areas who have been killing each other in Southside Belize City, a breeding ground for many of our talented young footballers. Doesn’t anyone care?