Star Goalkeeper Woodrow West Suspended Following Viral Video

Woodrow West

Over the weekend, there was one player visibly missing from the Belize versus Cuba game held on Sunday– Woodrow West. That’s because the Football Federation of Belize and the management of the Verdes Football Club issued a joint release saying that West was suspended from the national team and participating in the FIFA friendly match until the results of an intensive investigation is concluded. The star goalkeeper and captain of the national team was captured in a viral video threatening and being abusive towards a woman and now his fate lies in the balance. Today, F.F.B. President Sergio Chuc says it is a very sensitive issue, but that the federation has zero tolerance to abuse against women, and what will happen to Woodrow West is up to the disciplinary committee.

Sergio Chuc

Sergio Chuc, President, Football Federation of Belize

“I believe it was on Friday evening, a team manager sent me a tip of the video, and that was followed by another football fan, who are close to football, sending me another clip, it looked horrible to me. And immediately, we have the WhatsApp group within the executives, and I said, we need to make a determination on this immediate. Our policy of the F.F.B. is zero tolerance to violence, especially against women. We are celebrating women’s month and we had to act immediately. So the executive took the harsh decision to suspend him from the notional team even though we were having an international game the following day. We all know we have an international commitment, and you all know that he is our star goalkeeper and the captain of the national team, but because of our zero tolerance policy, there is no way we could have allowed him to get on the pitch representing Belize. So the investigation is ongoing and the disciplinary committee will maybe put out harsher sanctions than what the executive already done. The disciplinary committee will look further into it. We said the video is dangled. He cannot run away from it. I believe in the meeting we had with the coach and the manager basically accepted what is happening. He has his own side of the story but I wouldn’t want to comment on that publicly at that point. The disciplinary committee will deal with that, and I’m sure the sanctions will be a lot harsher. But we had to start somewhere, and there is no way we could have fielded him on this international game a day, two days before we received this video.  That is why we acted immediately.”