Minister Patrick Faber Says We Need Unity, Not Blame…

Belizean sports fans and even general observers have been shocked and dismayed by the news that the Belmopan Bandits, champions of the Premier League, have been disqualified from the Champions League, scheduled to commence next week. The disqualification is through no fault of the team. The F.F.B. maintains however, that the decision was made by CONCACAF because the field in Belmopan was not up to international standards. That comes after a months-long, multi-million dollar upgrade of F.F.B. facilities, supported by an infusion of cash from FIFA. So what went wrong? Well, blame is being laid by everybody on everybody else, which is pretty typical. Today Minister of Sports Patrick Faber told News Five that rather than fight, the parties need to unite to ensure that this terrible disappointment is not repeated.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports

Patrick Faber

“I am in title the Minister for Sports. As you know Herman Longsworth is my Minister of State and he has responsibility for sports in this country. I merely oversee and try to interfere as little as possible in his leadership. I think Minister Longsworth made it clear yesterday that there is disappointment on the part of the government and not because the owner of the Bandits is a member of the Cabinet, but we believe indeed if what is being said that all this money is being pumped to the F.F.B. to have football develop and we’re not seeing where that money is going in terms of the development of the facility, indeed it is a sad day and we are disappointed and from the aspects of what we can do as a ministry we will be doing that as he said yesterday…but disappointment not only for us as the government but also the wider Belizean people are very disappointed not being able to see Belize participate further. One of the areas that has always bothered me is that the budget for the Ministry of Sports is not very large. We see tremendous investments being made in terms of the facilities across the country and the government is doing what it can do but we’ve always maintained that…and I think this is what Minister Longsworth has been pushing…that the federations, the association save really the ones who we task with the responsibility of promoting the particular disciplines. And so we have a kind of hands off approach. The people who should be promoting football are those who love it. We support, we encourage and that can’t mean any more financial input than we can afford. But of course as minister with that responsibility and as I said to you we can always use more in terms of the budget, and where that budget is available we put a little bit extra of course, but I am hoping this doesn’t become a rift. And I already see that happening to some extent. I have heard Mr. Vicente speak and I of course have heard from other players and I really hope it does not become a kind of back and forth, a kind of tug and war between the government of Belize and the F.F.B. and that in fact we can unite in partnership to move things along in football so that this does not repeat itself.”

F.F.B. President Ruperto Vicente has maintained that the disqualification is because of the visuals at the F.F.B. field, brown spots in the grass which wouldn’t have looked good on TV. And that, he says, is solely the fault of the contractor, Marvin Ottley.