Election called off for the presidency of Belize Football Federation

For all intents and purposes, a showdown in the Belize Football Federation that had been predicted for Saturday has all but died down. FFB President Bertie Chimilio would have been challenged by Sergio Chuc but after the stats were checked, it turns out that Chuc’s eligibility to run has been called into question based on the current by-laws. Football aficionados held a meeting today at the MCC Grounds where it was learnt that the elections had been called off. A slate of contestants was also withdrawn. News Five spoke with Marvin Ottley, Manager of the Belize Premier Football League to find out their plan of action going into Saturday’s endorsement.

Marvin Ottley, Manager, Belize Premier Football League

marvin ottley

“There will be a nomination or an endorsement for the presidency and the executive but the partners in [the] are very much uncertain of the endorsement for reasons that our district chairman is going to have to answer some questions that we would have.  Primarily our district chairman would need to know that we cannot support an endorsement because we would need to know what is the reason why there cannot be an opposition going into the election.  That is one question.  The other question would lie if there could be some order of corrections in the other districts because Belize District is the only district that has a duly elected chairman and we wouldn’t want to encourage our chairman to participate in a process that is not democratic and free, you know.

There’s a lot of disenfranchised football players across the country who have the same views like us and I would really want them to get out and talk to their district chairmen in order to see what they can do to change the face of the endorsement on Saturday. Outside of Saturday it could be extremely horrible for the country but [what] I would want to share with all footballers is that there are times when we cannot just continue to take licks over and over on the basis that we know that there is wrongdoing.  If the president believes there is no wrongdoing then he must put the thing out there for duly democratic elections in all districts.”

Saturday’s gathering will be expected to endorse Chimilio’s slate of executives to head the Football Federation of Belize.