FFB Holds 2020 Congress; Sergio Chuc Re-elected as Its President

The Football Federation of Belize held its 2020 congress in Belmopan over the weekend, despite initial concerns from members of the organization regarding social distancing and other safety measures in light of the spike in COVID-19 cases.  On Friday evening, P.M. Barrow emphatically said that the event was a no-go since the location which was first chosen to host the gathering was not approved.  A decision was then taken to have the congress at the F.F.B. field in Belmopan which was subsequently given the green light.  F.F.B. President Sergio Chuc was re-elected for another term in office and today, he explained the confusion that led up to Saturday’s election.

Sergio Chuc, President, FFB

Sergio Chuc

“There was no urgency to it.  The election had been called for over six months now and it had been postponed twice already and every time the election is postponed we have to give, whenever we are ready to start we have to give sixty days notice and we had already given the sixty day notice for a second time and it was only twenty-one delegates that were coming to vote.  So there was, in our mind, no risk at all and we were not violating any laws because we had actually rented out four different conference rooms at the San Ignacio Hotel in San Ignacio.  So we didn’t see any problem, so that is why we wanted to complete it.  We had a lot of work going on and we did not want to jeopardize the funding that we are getting for Belize. It was very unfortunate but earlier in the week the police department had looked at the facility at the San Ignacio Hotel and they had given us the clearance with the four different conference rooms and with the twenty-one delegates that were going to vote along with the four executives that should be present at the congress and the electoral committee that only needed two representatives.  So it was not a whole lot of people, so we got the clearance; however, on Friday morning the police revisited.  I think they were getting some pressures from mischief makers, two mischief makers in particular at the federation, that we were violating the rules. The commissioner, along with the attorney general, said that they would not support it and when prime minister went into the press conference that was their position then that they would not support it and that is why the prime minister made that statement.  I must say clearly that the Football Federation of Belize has an excellent working relationship with the Government of Belize and so we would never, ever try to disrespect the prime minister or create some kind of problem.”