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It never happened? FFB dumps Triple B’s and other female clubs

SportsIt never happened? FFB dumps Triple B’s and other female clubs
Earlier this year, the Football Federation of Belize (FFB), under 12-year president Dr. Bertie Chimilio, made press releases regarding its Delhart Courtney Cup Women’s Football Tournament 2011, with participating female teams from the Belmopan area, Orange Walk, Stann Creek, Toledo and Cayo districts. Triple B’s of Belmopan was eventually declared the back-to-back champion of this year’s tournament.
  
Back in 2009, we had inquired of the FFB for them to give us the names of the executive of their National Female League, under which name they were conducting a female football tournament. The FFB gave us no names of executives, but stated that the tournament was being “run out of the FFB Secretariat.” Subsequently, their various releases referred to the tournament as the FFB’s Belize National Women’s League, National Female League, National Women Tournament, etc. Then they started the Delhart Courtney Cup Women’s Tournament
  
We raised the concern partly because a group calling itself the Belize Female Football League had been conducting female football tournaments for the past five years or more, involving teams from the Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek, Orange Walk and Belmopan football districts. And they are not affiliated to the FFB. In fact, their previously reigning four-year champion, Gentle Touch of Esperanza in the Cayo District, was only finally dethroned last year, 2010, by Millennium from the Belize District. 
    
It was logical, we assumed, that Millennium, Gentle Touch and the other female teams of the Belize Female Football League would simply be ignored by the FFB. They were now running their own official FFB female competition.
  
Well, as part of its “Memorandum of Understanding” signed with the Ministry of Sports on August 12 of this year, the FFB submitted on August 18 its “disclosure” list of all the clubs that are officially affiliated to the FFB. The list included 100 clubs from all 7 football districts.
  
It is not surprising that the female teams of the Belize Female Football League, which broke away from the FFB some years ago, are not listed in the “disclosure”, which includes a few female high school teams from the Belize and Toledo districts. But surprisingly, the FFB “disclosure” list makes no mention of its 2011 champion Triple B’s or most of the female teams from the Delhart Courtney Cup Women’s competition.  
  
The big question is: what happened to our girls? Don’t they count in Belmopan under the FFB?
  
In the Belize District, a committee led by Anthony Phillips, and including a Mrs. Thurton, Ms. Flowers and Ms. Buckley, is presently conducting an exciting 6-team open female football tournament, with teams from Caye Caulker, Sandhill, Ladyville, Hattieville and Belize City; but they are not recognized by the Belize District Football Association (BDFA) led by chairman Hugh “Pinaz” Staine, considered a Chimilio loyalist. According to the FFB “disclosure”, the BDFA’s list of affiliated female teams included “ACC”, “Rural Strikers”, “SCA”, and “Ladyville”. Last Thursday night, our reports are that Staine even threw Phillips out of his BDFA meeting, where Phillips was an interested observer seeking affiliation.
  
We may disagree very strongly with Mr. Staine’s actions, and we definitely do; but he can claim an excuse – Phillips’ teams are not on the “disclosure” list. However, what is the excuse of the FFB? What happened to the female clubs in the Delhart Courtney Cup tournament – why aren’t SUGAR CITY GIRLS, YO CREEK STRIKERS, PATCHAKAN, LAS FLORES, TRIPLE B’S, WEST INVADERS, BELLA VISTA LATIN GIRLS and PUMA AUTO RENTALS on the “disclosure” list? Didn’t they participate in a female football tournament under the FFB? Are you saying, it never happened? 
  
This is a strange puzzle that merits some investigation by football family members. Our reports are that the tournament went smoothly enough. FFB paid for half the transportation costs for all the teams, as well as all the referee costs. Some games were even televised on Plus TV. But no financial report of the tournament has been submitted. It would be reasonable to assume that most of these clubs are loyal to the FFB executive, having been so well treated. So why leave them off the “disclosure” list when every vote counts? Could there be something else about the Delhart Courtney Cup Women’s Football Tournament that the FFB does not want to “disclose”? Whatever it is, it is not fair to our women. It’s as if they are worth nothing; only to be used and discarded. 
 
(Ed. Note: The clubs in the “disclosure” list of the FFB will have the task of selecting chairmen in the 7 district branch association elections. Those chairmen will then cast their votes on behalf of their district branches at the FFB executive elections, now put back to March 10, 2012. The task of selecting the next leadership of the FFB therefore begins with the clubs on the disclosure list.) 

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