Election of F.F.B. President set for Saturday
Mudslinging, accusations of victimisation, alleged bribery, and calls for transparency … you probably think I’m talking about national politics right? Well politics might be involved but what I’m actually referring to is the run up to the election of a new President of the Football Federation of Belize. The new body will be in charge of developing the sport for the next four years and supervise a million dollar budget. With all that at stake, campaigning for the post has included canvassing, manifestos, and country wide tours. The incumbent president is Dr. Bertie Chimilio, while veteran referee Ruperto Vicente is the challenger. This morning, News Five’s Janelle Chanona spoke to both men regarding their chances of success.
Dr. Bertie Chimilio, President, F.F.B.
“I have no doubt in my mind that I will be re-elected. The work speaks for itself, you know we now have an headquarters, we’ve been very bold in preparing national teams, if you look at all the supposed local stars, they call came out of the national teams. We could boast Shane Orio came out the national team, he’s one of the best goal keepers in Central America. We have Ryan Simpson, in Panama so, yes, the work has not been as swift as some people expect. Everybody wants to be like Mike and in Belize we expect magic overnight both from our governments and political leaders, but I just want to remind the football public and the Belizean people that if we want to see good in football we all have got to work. I think the F.F.B. has put in the work and we need the rest of the Belizean to join us in that work.”
Ruperto Vicente
“We certainly need a change, the nation is crying for a change, the players are crying for a change because they believe they are suffering as a result of the maladministration of football, so we want to bring a change to our sport.”
“In our campaign as we have been elaborating in our campaign is transparency and accountability. We need to be accountable and we need to be very transparent. If we are managing public funds then we must be prepared to disclose to the public how we are spending the funds and how we are going to administrate football in this country. And the other thing is coaching, our players need coaching. We need to begin the development at the primary school and high school level. So far we do not have any codes for coaching and we need to establish that.”
The action will kick off at the F.F.B. headquarters in Belmopan at eleven on Saturday morning. Only eight people, the chairpersons of the seven football district associations and an official from the Belize Premier Football league, will actually be voting in the elections. The event will be conducted under the auspices of two representatives of the regional football body, CONCACAF. The Chimilio slate includes Bernaldino Pech Jr., David Jones, Trenton Miller, and David Gomez; while the members of team Vicente are William Moguel, Tony Zabaneh Sr., Hilberto Muschamp, and John Moody.
