Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), makes his first visit to Belize
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Aug. 31, 2022
After arriving in Belize on Tuesday for an official visit, the president of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), Gianni Infantino, made his way to Belmopan, and following courtesy visits on the Governor General of Belize Dame Froyla Tzalam and Acting Prime Minister Hon. Cordel Hyde, he made his way to the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) headquarters.
Upon arriving at the Football Federation of Belize (FFB) headquarters along with his delegation of FIFA executives, including Chief Development Officer Arsene Wenger and Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of FIFA’s Referee Committee, Infantino received a warm welcome from children of various ages who are participants in the FFB’s programs, and who demonstrated what they were being taught by FFB coaches on the football pitch.
Infantino, who became FIFA’s 9th president in 2016 and is officially visiting Belize for the first time, told local reporters that his administration is focusing on how to improve the sport of football for the next generation of athletes who would like to pursue a profession in the sport.
“Football is overdeveloped in some parts of the world, and in other parts, there is still a way to go, but when you have the talent and when you have basic structures, you know, you don’t need to have the training center of the top professional teams in Europe to be able to train boys and girls. You need basic structures; you need expertise; you need goodwill, and you need to implement it. And that’s all these ingredients, we found them here, with Sergio, with his team, and that’s what we are putting in place,” he said.
In 2020, the FFB began its construction of a stadium in Belmopan through a two-million-dollar investment from the FIFA Forward program, and Infantino commended the progress made in upgrading the stadium, which he referred to as “state-of-the-art”. “I’ve been visiting, in the last few years, over 160 countries around the world and I can tell you that this infrastructure here is already much, much better than many others in many parts of the world. So really, congratulations, and we keep on working on that at that pace, and we will invest even more,” he said. Nonetheless, FFB president Sergio Chuc pointed to work that still must be done.
“We are three-quarter way complete, but you see we need the parking, we need the shed, we need the VIP, and we still need another training pitch to the back. In Central America, all the national teams play on a grass pitch. We can’t have the national team playing strictly on a synthetic pitch and then go to play on a grass pitch in Salvador. So, we need to fix [the] pitches we have here. So we have a little more work to complete the center fully and then we look at other projects in other areas around the country, where the investment will go the longest way, maybe Belize City, where the most populated area is. We’ll look at those aspects, but certainly, we’ll move out of Belmopan soon as we complete the investment here,” he said.
There was some speculation in some quarters that Infantino’s official visit to Belize might be an attempt to lobby Belize’s support for his re-election at the FIFA Elections in 2023 and for his idea of a biennial World Cup, which will be voted on at the 72nd FIFA Congress this year. (He’ll need more than 50 percent of the votes from the 211 member countries for his brainchild idea of a World Cup every two years to become a reality.) The FFB president, Sergio Chuc, told local media, however, that he had already publicly declared his support for Infantino’s re-election—even prior to the visit.
“Let me say, he doesn’t have to worry about Belize, because when I took over at the first summit we had in Hong Kong, the panel was there discussing who the funds would be best suited for the developing countries. Initially, FIFA proposed that the operational funds be half a million dollars and the project funds [are] three quarter million dollars. We sat down in the group and discussed it and said the operation is more important. So we lobbied for a higher operation fund. The committee looked at it, [and] took our recommendation from Belize. Next thing, they reversed it and the operating funds became higher than the project funds. So, he is about listening to us and developing the countries that need it more. So, I have absolutely no reservations about pledging again my support for Gianni Infantino. I already nominated him, because I believe in what he is doing and he has been more than good to us. And, I am happy that he is pleased with the way how we are using the funds,” he said.
In regard to the progress that has been made in Belize, Infantino remarked, “I really want to congratulate the President, Sergio Chuc, for what he did, because it’s exactly true what you say. It was—Belize Football Federation was in a very poor state due to several circumstances. I mean, I can speak out of experience because FIFA was more or less in the same situation when I came to FIFA. And then when you know, when you are serious about it, when you are committed about it – we were discussing many times in the last few years, you know, where do we have to focus our investment, on the senior national team, or on the youths? No, we have to focus on the youths because that’s the future. And, even if it takes a few years to build up, you need to have this vision, and you need to invest the money, and you have to do it in an open and transparent way. FIFA, compared to before I arrived, is now investing in every country seven times more. So we thought it was like $300,000 a year, 250,000, and now it’s over 2 million every year – U.S. dollars – that we are investing. But we are not only investing. We are also making sure and controlling that the money is invested in the right places. But in Belize, since Sergio came, you know, this has changed completely. Everything is transparent. Every dollar that comes in is accounted for. Every dollar that goes out is accounted for.”
Minister of Sports, Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, when he later met with local reporters, remarked, “I just met Mr. Infantino this morning, right here at the FFB compound, and I’m happy that he chose to visit our small country. We never expected in my lifetime that a president of FIFA would have visited Belize. But I have seen their input, over the last maybe five or ten years, where there has been a serious transformation in football in this country because of FIFA inputs. And so, I guess he decided to come to Belize, and it’s not for votes, because according to the president, they had already told him that he already had their full support. But, just for their Football for Schools, Belize has been rated as number 14 [which] got the assistance out of 211 countries. So, there is something that we’re doing significantly to attract the FIFA organization.”