CONCACAF Called in to Adjudicate

Ruperto Vicente

So with everybody on the local front on the same page, it was on to this morning’s very early meeting. F.F.B. President Ruperto Vicente says he also felt compelled to call in CONCACAF to advise them of the challenges, so he called that organization’s president and asked for assistance. CONCACAF sent in Rafael Salgero – Executive Member of CONCACAF and FIFA and Marco Leal, Legal Advisor of CONCACAF…and, we are told, a plan of action was drafted. That includes a complete restructuring of the league.

Ruperto Vicente, President, Football Federation of Belize

“All the things that were affecting us were aired out at this morning’s meeting and so they were able to come up with pointers on how we move forward. They have given us a calendar of activities that we are going to be working on as executives and as a federation in terms of moving football forward in this country.”

Reporter

“There was talk of restructuring the FFB and the league. The last time we spoke that was what FIFA intended. Is that still the plan?”

Ruperto Vicente

“Yes…in fact because of the weakness that was discussed yesterday…I had seen that weakness for months now, and I had informed the executive as well as the general assembly of the Federation that I would be bringing in FIFA to assist us in coming up with a strategic plan. So FIFA is coming in October to do that. And then they will also come in and restructure our league. So FIFA will come in and do that in the month of October. What has started already is that FIFA has also contracted a local company in Belize to assist us and to also restructure our financial structure in the Federation. So we realize that we have this weakness, and we don’t have the finance to deal with it, and so the best thing we could have done was to invite FIFA to come in and do that work for us.”