BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Oct. 22, 2020– On Monday of this week, October 19, we finally received a WhatsApp copy of an FFB press release dated October 15, which basically endorses the position of FFB President, Sergio Chuc, when he said on 7News on October 2 that it will be “business as usual” with the Football Federation of Belize, notwithstanding the letter from FFB Elections Appeal Committee chairperson, attorney Jacqueline Willoughby, dated September 27, declaring the August 22 FFB elections “null and void” because of various breaches to the FFB Statutes. In a release on October 2, the FFB Secretariat had stated that it would “consult with its Judicial bodies in determining the way forward.”

That “Judicial” body turned out to be no less than FIFA’s Chief Member Associations Officer, Veron Mosengo-Omba, who, strangely, declared that “FIFA considers that the Election Appeal Committee has no competence to take the abovementioned decision and therefore is not admitted by FIFA,” since “Disputes in FFB or disputes affecting Members of FFB…may only be referred in the last instance … to an arbitration tribunal.” Suggesting, as FFB President Chuc had stated in his October 2 interview, that the “complaint should have gone to the disciplinary and ethics committee” instead of to the Appeals Committee.

We must say it is not surprising to us, having in the past witnessed various attempts to challenge incumbents of the FFB, getting turned back on the basis of “technical” flaws in the procedure, and not necessarily on the substance of the complaint.

So, indeed, it is “business as usual” at the FFB.