CONCACAF rep backs Football Federation
It’s a situation that has dragged on for so long that it should come as no surprise that football in Belize seems destined to remain between the rock of stupidity and the hard place of egos and agendas. As we reported on Tuesday, meetings between the Belize Premier Football League, the Football Federation of Belize and representatives of UNCAF, CONCACAF, and the Caribbean Football Union went nowhere. Today, News 5’s James Adderley spoke with the General Secretary of CONCACAF, Chuck Blazer, who says his trip to Belize is a fact-finding mission to find out what’s going wrong. According to Blazer, he had been made to understand that in October 2003, the B.P.F.L. had expressed its unconditional intention to rejoin the F.F.B. Therefore, the international organisation was shocked to learn just two weeks ago that everything had gone haywire. General Secretary Blazer says he has already determined that the Football Federation of Belize is totally within its rights and goes so far as to suggest that recent moves by the government cannot be allowed to affect the development of the sport.
Chuck Blazer, General Secretary, CONCACAF
“Here what we have is indeed what we have determined is that the federation was duly elected by its members, is essentially in control of football, is the one that has the right to, and coordinates with its regional associations and conducts football in this country; is the one who is charged with the responsibility of providing a national team for the World Cup. And as long as that is recognised by FIFA, they are the ones charged with that responsibility, not something that any government or anyone else has to say.”
James Adderley
“Can you envision a settlement down the road then because you are leaving without a settlement.”
Chuck Blazer
“Well, there is no settlement between the league and between the federation. I believe what will be very clear however will be in my report, which I will make certainly public as well as to the President and the Federation, of exactly what the findings were. And the fact is that there are other agendas in place here. There are political agendas unfortunately which are also in place and when we analyse who has the agenda and why it is. I mean we had some concerns when we came here. We thought that there might be a political reason for example for the federation to be keeping the league out after this length of time, we said maybe that’s the case. But the reality is, based on the statutes of the Federation, whether the league is in or out it doesn’t any difference politically. So I mean that was a sham, that was an excuse that didn’t hold any water. Therefore as we started to look and see what is going on it becomes clear that the league is looking to capture the control of what is the national football.”
Even though national football is the real victim of this entire affair, the CONCACAF representative insists that while he will not ask for Belize to be suspended from FIFA, he does ask that the government recognise that the Football Federation of Belize is the only body FIFA will sanction to run football in the country.
Chuck Blazer
“I assure you that at this point now, in my report now I would recommend against suspension since I believe that the proper body who is representing Belize in football is the proper body who is presently in charge of it.”
James Adderley
“But if this so called intransigence continues?”
Chuck Blazer
“Listen, the truth is that the federation can play without the fields that are provided by the government. The federation can play without support by the government.”
James Adderley
“Would CONCACAF support the F.F.B of Belize playing outside the realm of the government?”
Chuck Blazer
“Well, the government is not the one who is running football. I mean, we all play outside the realm of government. That is why we don’t have governments running the game. We run the game, as people who are involved in the game.”
“So at this point now, obviously I believe that there will be have to be some resolution of this situation by the federation with the government. I hope that comes soon. It does not change the fact that my report will contain that the Federation indeed is the party which is indeed appropriately in charge of football and where it goes from here is very much what is done by the people who are involved here, not by us.”
Chuck Blazer was joined by Harold Taylor, General Secretary of the Caribbean Football Union, and Rafael Tinoco, General Secretary of UNCAF.
