Last night, we showed you how the Belize Body Building and Fitness Federation responded to the allegations of misuse of funds which bodybuilder Cricel Castillo made against them.
The President had to answer personally to that allegation, and Castillo is not the only person who's criticizing his leadership. Clinton Tucker, who you may know as the head trainer at the Lion's Den Boxing Gym in Ladyville, is also a bodybuilder and a member of the Federation.
He's also the back to back winner of the Mr. Physique competition, a category within the Bodybuilding Championships. He and Moody had a recent falling out over money; he claims that the monetary prizes for winning the competition have been unreasonably decreased, and he blames the federation executives for not raising funds.
Yesterday, the president was asked about it at the press conference they hosted, and here's how he explained what he views as an unimportant dispute with Tucker.
Stanley Moody, President, B.B.B.F.F.
"Last week when Mr. Tucker came to pick up his stipend as we put it for winning the Mr. Physique, he came to my place of business, I had customers in my business, he was given his cheque and on his way out the door he turn around and started making a whole heap of noise about if this is the little bit of money he is getting and that this cant satisfies him and he was being very loud in my place of business. So I turned around and said Mr. Tucker can you keep it down, and I have witnesses because they were all sitting down there stunned. I said Mr. Tucker you are in my place of business, if you have something to say, let's go to the back. He was very unhappy. He said if they added all the total of all the cash prizes that still wouldn't satisfy him. So I said if that's the case then you can give back the cheque. If you are so unhappy with it then just give it back. No one is forcing you to compete. I said this is an amateur sport, no one is forcing you to compete and as amateur athletes. We don't have to give money, we are not required to give money. Those are IFBB rules, we are not required to give money. Trophies, medals - yes. But we feel that these athletes works hard, and it's an expensive sport, so if we can supplement them a little by giving some funds we do it, but it's not a given."
We also got a chance to speak with Tucker about his version of events, as well as his complaint against the way Moody is running the Federation. He told us yesterday that Moody is doing nothing to grow the federation or its resources:
Clinton Tucker
"It's really bad for the prizes to be devalued for this year because we had bigger trophies and better prizes last year and for you to ask athletes to be better and bigger and giving them the least, I think that's very disrespectful of the federation, as a president. I think he is disrespecting all the athletes on a whole, but only a few athletes will speak out. What is it for us to be raising our children to grow up into a community without sports, that's no discipline at all and as a president, he know he is doing us wrong."
Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"What they are arguing is that cash prizes is not an obligation, but it's like "brata" and that maybe you misunderstood that principle."
Clinton Tucker
"They are very unprofessional in what they are doing because they would like the athletes themselves to bring their own prizes to sponsor the prizes themselves - to go out there and seek prizes for themselves and that's why we have a federation and that's why we pay our dues so that they can do their job. We have this competition once a year and they wait until the final moment to get out there and work for us while we are working all year long to try to maintain and try to hold these conditions and physique."
So, to recap, the President says that Monetary awards are not a must for winners of the championship tournament. He also notes that the sponsorship for the tournament decreased, and that's why there is a noticeable decrease in the prizes this year as compared to last year.
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