It is time, and over time for our political leaders, who are in charge of guiding the development of our country’s economy, to realize and fully grasp the fact that sports in general, and football in particular in this region, aside from the health benefits it offers to the population, is a big business at the professional level, with the potential to generate significant revenues and jobs for our economy. But proper infrastructure must be in place.
The entertainment industry is very big in every developed country, and sports and tourism are a part of that industry. It’s a two-way thing, with both tourism and professional sports benefiting from each other, as the presence of a top foreign team in Belize is an added attraction for visiting tourists. We always lament the lack of sufficient quality outdoor entertainment in Belize. For example, bus loads of Salvadoran visitors made the over land journey to Belize when their national team played a World Cup qualifier here in Belize a few years ago. And visitors came from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to see the Canadian national team play a friendly against the Belize national selection around 1983 or 84 in Orange Walk.
For our country to really tap into the big business of professional football, the number one sport in this region, we need to stop being “lightweights.” And it is not that difficult. We have all the basic ingredients on the ground – the land to build quality stadiums, a veritable gold mine of natural talent, the love of the game, the courageous spirit, the willingness to work hard. What is needed, as for so many things, is the political will at the top, in government and in our sports institutions.
But those in the sporting arena who think “big”, and want to push to the next level, are often frustrated and undermined by bureaucrats in high positions who seem to want to keep us in a subservient, “lightweight” stage for whatever reasons. In properly administered professional sports, the athletes are the highest paid. In this subservient, “lightweight” mode that athletes have been held down in, the bureaucrats and the officials (referees) get the most benefits.
An example of this negative, bureaucratic mentality towards sports as a business, can be seen by the treatment of the sensational Raiders basketball franchise of the 1990’s, and the spectacular Coca Cola Milpros football team of 1985-86.
Rather than nurturing these outstanding and immensely popular teams, so that all others could benefit from fan attendance to see them perform, until they were eventually displaced by rivals, the political/sports administrators tried their best to “bring them down”. As if winning was a crime, they even broke up the semipro basketball league at one point, having no competition, and instead spread rumors that Raiders were winning by underhanded methods, or had an unfair advantage with KREM Radio promoting their team. They didn’t see that they all benefited from the hype; and how could they deny the performance that they were seeing with their own eyes?
And when Coca Cola Milpros, after an undefeated City competition, took the nation by storm in the national marathon of 1986 at the MCC, putting on a spectacular one-day performance against the nation’s best teams and claiming the national marathon title, the bureaucrats immediately got to work and called an emergency mid-week BNFA general assembly meeting of football officials to change the rules of the competition, their claim being that “Coke is too strong.”
When you are a “lightweight”, as Belize has recently proven itself to still be in the region, none of the “big boys” want to play against you. Not because they are afraid of losing. They know they can beat a “lightweight”; the risk is extremely small, although accidents do happen sometimes. But their big fear is that their fans will not bother to come to their game. They see their own team all the time. What excites them is to see a worthy opponent, so their adrenalin gets up, and they can ride “heart and soul” with their team. If there is no perceived danger of losing, there is no thrill. That is why, when a “big” team has to play a “lightweight”, they generally prefer to play their “home” game first. That way, at least they can entertain their fans by creating a bit of suspense about what surprises the “lightweights” might have up their sleeves to try and upset the home team. Then they can load them up with goals, to their fans’ satisfaction. But, if their first game is on the road, and they pile up the goals, their return match at home will have little interest for the fans; and they will lose financially with poor gate attendance. It’s a business. (50,000 fans, mostly Mexicans, turned up to see Belize vs Mexico in Houston; but the return match in Monterrey could pull only 40,000.)
Having our home game against Mexico first was a gift for Belize, and a risk for Mexico. Belize beating St. Kitts/Nevis did not prove anything, despite all the hype from the FFB and some gullible locals. Both Belize, at #26 in Concacaf, and St. Kitts/Nevis, at #22, are considered “lightweights”. In effect, Mexico “blessed” Belize with their #1 Concacaf status and gate appeal for our first game, thus guaranteeing Belize a big gate. But it would be to Mexico’s financial detriment to blow out Belize in Houston. Better to accept some criticism from fans, and build up the image of Belize temporarily, so that the Mexican fans would have a reason to come out in numbers in Monterrey. Again, sports is big business.
It is sometimes said that, it is not just to win that is important, but it is “how you play the game”. The way Belize played in Houston, despite the low score, and the loud praises from Belize officials, quickly proved one thing to those of us who watch football not only with our hearts, but with our eyes and heads as well. Belize could not beat Mexico. Not the way we were playing. Belize did not have “game”. The result was academic.
Unless they themselves are also deluded and thus totally incompetent, as many have suspected, to take Belize forward in football, the FFB bureaucrats played a big joke on our political leaders and the patriotic football fans of Belize. After watching the performance in Houston, to believe that, with practically the same team, no surprise strategy, Belize could suddenly turn the tables in Monterrey is at best delusional, and perhaps dishonest. By getting the population all hyped up with dreams and possibilities, the FFB leaders have for the moment succeeded in distracting attention from their total lack of a football development program for Belize, despite the massive FIFA funding all these years. The FFB has a few things on paper, which is its ticket to continue collecting the FIFA money in Belize’s name for “football development”. But football in Belize continues to be played and coached and administrated with no help, financial or otherwise, from the FFB.
FFB President Dr. Chimilio was glad to get the “home” game first against Mexico, and he was “gone clear”, whatever the outcome on the field. If the money was to be used constructively and transparently for real “football development” in Belize, there would be justification for some rejoicing, even swallowing some of the bitter embarrassment of the Guatemala “home” game fiasco. But secrecy has been the financial way of the FFB, just like the recent PUP government. Ironically, Dr. Chimilio seems to have the full support of the UDP ministers. So, it seems I have indeed been wrong; and, in his words, Dr. Bertie has been “proven right again”. Belize loses; FFB wins.