BELIZE CITY–The Nation of Islam leader, Hon. Louis Farrakhan made the above plea during an address at Bird’s Isle back in the mid-1980’s, and we borrowed his words for this piece as they seem most appropriate. Our government, red or blue, MUST change their thinking and make some serious budgetary allocations for sports.

It is inexcusable that in 2014 the population center, and still the commercial and media capital of our country, Belize City, does not have a decent football stadium or basketball auditorium. Our Premier League of Belize representative, FC Belize has to play its “home games” in Orange Walk; while our basketball national coach, Matthew Smiling, announced recently that training of the national youth team is taking place in San Ignacio. And the present Minister of Sports and Junior Minister of Sports are both area representatives from Belize City.

Athletics enthusiast and former Belize Athletic Association President, Ian Gray forwarded the below article from Northern Illinois University (NIU) website to our sports desk.