At a time when almost all countries of the world are excited and emotional about their national teams’ participation in the upcoming group qualifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, in Belize we find ourselves torn between our love for the game, and our loathing of the corrupt, arrogant and selfish FFB Executive who continue to flaunt their illegal regime over the selection of football players that are carrying the name of Belize in FIFA’s football qualifiers.
Belizeans are hungry for football, and for a chance to see visiting international teams in action on our home soil. On Saturday at the World Cup draw in Brazil, Belize was placed in Group E along with Grenada, Guatemala, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, with an opening game away against Grenada on September 2, and our first “home” game against Guatemala on September 6. Rather than being knocked out in one home-and-away encounter as in times past (although on the last two occasions our “home” game was played abroad), this time, due to the new format that first matched us against last place Montserrat, Belize would now play 3 games abroad and 3 at home against other Group E members.
Yes, we are hungry for football. But there is something big stuck in our throat, that has to be removed before we can even consider feasting on the football spectacle ahead; and that something is the unfair, unaccountable and un-transparent FFB dictatorship.
FIFA delegates are expected back in Belize tomorrow, Tuesday, to conclude discussions with government and local football officials on the way forward. The consensus among the Belizean “football family” is that any move that does not include the removal of the illegal FFB Executive and holding of new elections is not a “forward” move.
The quicker this matter is settled, the better for all. But if FIFA wants an idea of just how deep and painful are the wounds caused to the Belizean football public by those presently in control of the FFB, they only need to note the fact that there was no national outcry or lament, except from a select few FFB stalwarts, when the FIFA suspension was first announced; and neither was there any great celebration when it was lifted. In fact, the qualifier games in Honduras were hardly even discussed in Belize football circles. What the Belize football family was most concerned about was the FIFA visit, and the possible changes that they hoped may result. As one aggrieved football family member put it, “it is not Belize, but instead it is the Bertie Selection that is participating in these games.”
The players on the team that defeated Montserrat are all “of Belizean origin” and parentage. And many of them will likely be a part of the Belize National Selection when our nation’s football is once more back in the hands and hearts of the legitimate representatives of our Belizean people. But first, FIFA has to do the right thing; otherwise Belizeans will feel compelled to sit out this World Cup, if that is the only way left for us to solve our “internal football problem.”
Martin Luther King once said, “a man who won’t die for something, is not fit to live.” In Belize, it is because we love our country and our football so, that we are prepared to give up what seems like everything, a chance to participate in World Cup, in order to clean out the corruption, and to resurrect and rebuild the sanctity and the national dignity of our football in Belize.