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John Saldivar pleads his case

FeaturesJohn Saldivar pleads his case

by Colin Hyde

In the world of I-told-you-so, I advised Brother John Saldivar a number of times to give up ownership of the BMP Bandits when he became an elected representative and minister in the UDP governments which held the reins from 2008 to 2020. I can’t say that the big man reads my column, but I have many friends and acquaintances in that city who are close to him, and they read, so if he’s not a reading man, he got the message, and my reasoning. His fall from grace is not directly related to what I had to say, but if he had heeded what I said, he probably never would have arrived at this dismal state where he is now.

It is detrimental to football for the minister to own a club in the semi-pro football league, because his club has an unfair advantage. One reason is that “everyone” wants to do the minister’s bidding, for the favors the minister can give. Whoa there, it looks like unscrupulous persons, for the favors that a minister can give, got cozy with the minister too.

Going into some history, John became a minister, Minister of Sports, at a time when the highest football league was unstable because the head, Dr. Chimilio, was insisting on cementing his hold on the game. It was an age when the Doc’s sycophants were singing that Sepp Blatter, then head of FIFA, was corrupt, so the eagerness of the Doc and his crowd to control was no great sin.

Well, to those of us who appreciate fair play, there was no sale there. In the Doc’s regime, my compadre, who had invested next to nil in football, became the representative for BMP football. I was involved in sports at the time, and I was aware that Mr. Pena at the SSB, and his friends, had invested years and years to produce a BMP tournament every season. If you’ve ever been involved in organizing sports in Belize, you know how costly that labor of love is. My compadre was eager to serve the Doc in football, and he was whisked to the top. I’m not so foolish to think that anyone in this world is pure. But man, that was what you call, in your face.

So, I wanted the well-liked Doc gone from football, and along came Minister John, aided by the able Miley, and the Doc got the boot. Oh boy, the minister’s club won and represented us abroad every year after that, almost.

Okay, our city was happy. In years past, BMP starved for a championship. I think pre-John the Habets owned the Belmopan club. I remember the year when Shane dreamed in goal, and Tiliman, of Yaabra, burned him from 30 yards. Ah, Shane, he had the physical gifts to be a top ten portero in the world, but he liked to get bored. I remember the year when it came down to penalties against Sagitun. When I saw Camalote’s Locho Coye step up to take his turn, I knew he would ops. If it had been his brother, Makoati, a striker, it would have been pigeon hole. Locho, a bakop, booted it high, way high, and over.

I won’t go into more explanations about how a minister owning a team undermines the integrity of the game. The bigger story, for John, is how his owning a football team in the highest league led him into relationships with two men who are in jail at this time, one for the terrible crime of murder, the other for the greedy crime of bilking the US government.

Football (sports) is a special world. It is the only arena on earth where, within the rules, you can vanquish all comers and have no remorse. It’s a tragedy when people take the same approach into other spheres in life. But my uncle, JV, told me that’s the way it is in the corporate world.

There’s a pure story in sports at the well-organized amateur level. There is a serious business side at the professional level. I wasn’t aware of how much business was in Belize football until I had a talk with the famous Ray Davis. Businessmen in the big countries jostle to sign stars and athletes who appear to have star potential, and they buy and sell them like regular merchandize. Of course, the athletes get a big fat cut. Until I spoke with Ray, I didn’t know that that “game” had arrived in Belize. There’s so little investment in athletes in our country. Really, how can you fight over what you didn’t make? Well, I was slow. Some were operating at a higher level. It’s all legal, and apparently John’s thoughts were up there.

Now, John is before the nation pleading for us to defend his name after the US government designated him a corrupt person. I don’t know that he is. What I know is that he kept very bad company. And what I know is that after he had fallen, I wrote a few times that he needed to put on sackcloth and back off for a while. When a businessman misjudges a talent, sees too much in a player that has little growth potential, he and his club pay for their misjudgment. When a political leader misjudges the people he engages with, a nation pays. You don’t get more big-time notorious than Mr. Mason and Mr. Dermen.

It has occurred to me that John accepted he had blundered, but he feared that if he stepped back there’d be no tomorrow. Khalid, if the UDP hasn’t sullied him too much, is formidable. A horse like that might not want to go back into the stables if he gets in the race.

But Khalid has a dilemma even if John gets the sense this time. Darrell Bradley and Michael Peyrefitte have, wisely, decided not to run in the next general elections. With its present configuration, which John created in his desperation to save his hide, the UDP is looking to be out of office for three terms. Bah, only the Americans are enjoying this.

Infantino scolds the Europeans

Europeans all across the globe are reeling after FIFA president Gianni Infantino called them hypocrites for all their negative comments about Qatar, the hosts of World Cup 2022. Ah, the Europeans are spewing mud on Qatar’s parade, condemning that country over human rights issues and multiple other failures, and Infantino feels that instead of accusing and insulting Qatar’s leaders and people they should be engaging them. Speaking to his European brothers, Infantino said: “I think for what we Europeans have been doing the last 3,000 years, we should be apologizing for next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.”

We know what these Europeans have been about in their countries, and abroad. They, Europeans, have many sins, some real grievous ones. Some have remorse for their evil, and they have worked at atonement. Unfortunately, some of them are overzealous, and their causes compound our problems. Tarnation, the Europeans told us, “spare the rod”, and we did, and spoiled the child.

Many NGOs do great work, especially those ones involved with protecting the environment. Those ones that are involved with behavioral change have to know that we need to stand our ground against some of these European tunes, because they bring more harm than good.

There are people who passionately believe that spanking the child makes violent adults, and that incarcerating a human being is humane, while corporal punishment isn’t. An important lesson is given in the story about the emperor’s new clothes. Ah, if I remember correctly, it was tailors from strange places that concocted that entire scheme. It would be best if these Europeans heeded Mr. Infantino’s advice, best if they engaged instead of dictating to us. I say, some of their solutions are very destructive.

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