Football Federation sets sights on World Cup
It’s almost a predetermined occurrence—each time our local football boys take the field against their regional or international counterparts, the end result is a merciless beating. But football officials want to turn that around by the next World Cup scheduled for South Africa in 2010. To reach that goal, Belize will have to make it past no less than three rounds of eliminations. The road to that accomplishment will begin this Sunday in South Africa when countries will find out their list of possible first round opponents. President of the Football Federation of Belize, Dr. Bertie Chimilio, says while things can only look up for Belize, the challenges will be steep.
Dr. Bertie Chimilio, President, Football Federation of Belize
“The format this year is very, very interesting and good for Belize. I think we have an opportunity now to go to the next round. What CONCACAF has done is that they have taken the ranking for FIFA for May 2007 and they have placed the top twelve countries in the second round and those countries are: Mexico, U.S.A., Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Canada, Guyana. The thirteen country which is St. Vincent and the Grenadines got a bye to the second round already. That leaves twenty-two to play the first round. What they have done is that they have divided the twenty-two countries into the top eleven and the bottom eleven. We are in the bottom eleven and the draw is gonna be open so Belize, possibly on Sunday, could get Barbados, Suriname, Bermuda, Antigua and Bermuda, St Kitts-Nevis, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Bahamas, Nicaragua, St. Lucia or Grenada. So any one of these eleven countries we could be facing come the sixth of February 2008 and from the look of things we should be playing home first. We don’t know, on Sunday we will know.”
The first round of eliminations will begin in 2008 when two hundred and five countries will fight for the coveted thirty-two spots next month. Belize will select its list of twenty players that will make up the National Team, under Guatemalan coach, Palmiro Salas.
