F.F.B. moves on despite football controversy
Good evening I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday. The heavy rains over the weekend forced the postponement of yesterday’s match between defending semi-pro champion Kulture Yabra of Belize City, and former champion, Juventus of Orange Walk at the M.C.C. Grounds, which obviously left us bereft of footage.
Nevertheless, we can tell you San Pedro was able to hold Acros Real Verdes to a scoreless stalemate yesterday at the Norman Broaster Stadium. On Saturday night’s ticket in Belmopan, Builders Hardware Bandits bombed winless Griga United 3-zip to pick up its first season win in four tries, while Sagitun pulled up to second place after week IV by shocking Corozal Victory 3-1 Saturday night at Independence.
In the meantime, the postponed match between Yabra and Juventus is set for Wednesday night at 7:00 at the M.C.C. Grounds.
Meanwhile, the fallout in the Belizean football world continues as both the Belize Premier Football League and the Football Federation of Belize are moving on in their own desired pathways. We caught up with F.F.B. President Dr. Bertie Chimilio this morning. We asked him about the newly developed “A” League.
Dr. Bertie Chimilio, President, F.F.B.
“Everybody knows the history of football over the last two months. We’ve been in a little bit of turmoil, nevertheless, the Executive has stuck together and we decided that since the B.P.F.L. has withdrawn, we have to create our own tournament, which is the tournament that we will recognise as the highest tournament in Belize. A few weeks ago, some prospective owners were gathered together in a meeting and they agreed to go with an A team format, and that is the Belize A Tournament, if you want to give it an acronym, BAT. And right now we’re playing in two groups, the northern zone and the southern zone and we have eight teams.”
James Adderley
“We understand that as a result of the withdrawal of the B.P.F.L., should we need players to represent us on the international scene, it would be left to the Belize A league.”
Dr. Bertie Chimilio
“Definitely! Players come from all different levels and right now the level we’re recognising as the highest level of football in Belize is the Belize A Tournament and players for future selections will come from that tournament.”
James Adderley
“We understand that there’s a closing date to register with the F.F.B. for all players in the nation and that target date is October fifteen.”
Dr. Bertie Chimilio
“James, as a result of this break-away, quite a number of players really don’t know where they stand, and it would have been undue pressure on them if we eliminate them right away. So the Executive came up with a proposal that we give all players who are interested to play organised football to come to the federation by October fifteenth and register; bearing in mind that you can’t register with two different leagues. The B.P.F.L. at this present moment is not recognised by the federation and if you want to play football, you have until October fifteen to come and register with the federation so as to play official football.”
Hey Belize, the football world continues to churn and we are gonna keep you posted. That’s it our show for today, we invite you back same time, same place next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
