A Stop to Championship Would Have Financial Costs
Sanctions aside, Chuc says that there is a legal process to the protest made by B.D.F. Football Club. Immediately following the game on April twenty-ninth, the military team—as is mandated—filed its protest to the Premier League of Belize. That complaint was rejected by the PLB Protest Board. That decision by PLB is now being appealed with the federation. President Chuc says that the appeals’ board of the F.F.B. is in possession of that letter and after a forty-eight-hour time frame, the board will decide the next step. So in the absence of that pronouncement, should the league have continued with the tournament since there is a protest of the result of a game?
Sergio Chuc
Sergio Chuc, President, F.F.B.
“Just like the other seven teams in the Premier League of Belize, they sign on that the referee decision is final. This is not only something here in Belize. The International Football Association Board, which governs the laws of football—they are a British board that was given the mandate by FIFA many years ago to look at the laws and come up with new regulations and new laws of football; their rules are basically our rules of the game and you can’t challenge it. So B.D.F. sent in a protest; I believe the protest board put it aside, so the next process is they could appeal. As far as I know they sent in a notice of appeal to the Football Federation of Belize. I have been advised by the General Secretary that he wrote them and I saw the letter saying that you’ve sent in your notice and you have forty-eight hours to send in the grounds of your appeal because now you are appealing the decision made by the protest board of the PLB. What are your grounds for the appeal and please send in your petition; what are the results that you want to see.”
Duane Moody
“Some people are of the opinion that the tournament was not to continue; that there would have been maybe a delay in the games until this protest note is fully thrashed out or dealt with. But the games still continued on Sunday. B.D.F. fells that that is not acting in good fate. Any comments to that?”
Sergio Chuc
“Well all I could say is that it is a tournament that is playing; there will be protest but because one team protests, we cannot stop the tournament. Remember if we had intervened and stop the tournament, there are other matters that would have to be dealt with. The Bandits Football Club was still part of the tournament; Verdes was still part of the tournament. These, we have to accept, are the two biggest clubs in the league at this point when it comes to professionalism and the paying of their players. I am not privy to the information about how much they pay their players, but I could give a guesstimate that they are paying somewhere in the vicinity of seven and eight thousand dollars a week on salaries. So if we stop the game for one week, you are looking at fifteen thousand dollars.”
