At 2:00 pm Belize time tomorrow – The Belize National Football Team will take on the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo at that City's Olympic
Stadium. IT eats twenty four thousand persons and the team got their first chance to see it this afternoon. 7News was there and we asked head of the
delegation and FFB Vice President Marlon Kuylen if the scale of the stadium might dwarf the team:
Jules Vasquez
"How do you all feel seeing the size of this arena, the olympic stadium here in Santa Domingo. Is it a concern that, it's large?"
Marlon Kuylen - Vice President, FFB
"Well it holds 24,000 people but the federation here thinks that 10,000 fans should show up. The players aren't concern about that really, it's mostly
about getting focused now. Today as you see in the background they are doing the are doing their walk around the stadium to get themselves familiarised
with the pitch. Tomorrow it's more the technical side of things."
Jules Vasquez
"What sort of - their national team is ranked very close to ours. What type of outcome are we expecting in terms of knowing the culture here is not a
predominantly football?"
Marlon Kuylen
"Our guys are confident because we've been in camp since November. The team is now complete. After those Cayman matches the team felt we weren't
complete because we didn't have a striker. But now that Deon is back and the training he has put in, the attitude he has brought, the leadership role
that he has taken has raised their morale and they are very confident going into these matches with the Domincan Republic."
Jules Vasquez
"What is the expectation for in terms of the FFB's perspective? I'm here, I can see it's a very costly endeavour. You have these guys staying in a
quite expensive hotel, you have to feed all of them, transportation. How do you all afford all of this?"
Marlon Kuylen
"Well, we've been digging deep into the federation's funds. But one thing we hope that would help is the stadium gets full on Sunday and in the end,
we'll soon have to go to the public and cooperate Belize to assist us going forward."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, you may have Belizeans out there, some fans who taking a wait and see how they are doing in this game and purchase my ticket then. How would you
encourage them? Or exhort them to - you know what invest in the team, it's not just buying a ticket to a game, they're investing in the national
football effort."
Marlon Kuylen
"Yes, It's for our national pride. Even if we lose here tomorrow, what would raise the teams morale more than having the stadium filled with Belizean
flags and with the colour and all the flags going. It's more than just - it's Belizean pride, people pay much more money to go and watch concerts, why
not come and support our boys?"
Kuylen says they are asking corporate sponsors and government to chip in with support for the team.
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