7 News Belize

Justin Avila – The Football Super Fan
posted (June 11, 2015)
Belize won on the field today in Santo Domingo but they had help from a secret weapon. That's Justin Avila, a Belizean American businessman from Naples Florida. Justin isn't a big time name in sports sponsorship - but he is, without doubt, the biggest fan of the Belize Jaguars. Since 2006 he's been following the team on every major international outing; he flies from his home in Florida to meet them. But, he doesn't just cheer lead in the stands - he provides key logistics and support. For example, in Santo Domingo, he got there one day before the team, made sure the rooms they got were close together, put gallons of water in each player's room - and rented a car to basically be the team's run man. He gets nothing out of it, nothing form FIFA or the FFB. So why does he do it, well, as he explains he is just the Belize team's biggest fan...

Jules Vasquez
"You came to us all on your personal timing, on your personal expense. Why do you do it?"

Justin Avila - Team Belize SUPERFAN
"That's a good question. I do it because I think that there's one place that I was born and that's Belize and I realize that the team always needs help and I think that back home we didn't have the kind of help that we need. Is sounds like a controversy, but it's the honest to God truth - the team is always underfunded. Today I was talking to the guys in Belize, they're asking me now is there a game today? What time is the game? It breaks my heart when I hear these things. Me living in America, you follow the team all over - when you see these things - this is the kind of support that we get and you hear things like there's always questions about the coaching staff and the formation that we play, when the team plays good and when it doesn't play good. Instead of just supporting the team like I do and you're right, I do this on my own personal expense, I do this in my personal time. One, because I love my country Belize. Two, because I love football and three, because the team needs someone like me. Like on this trip here, on this trip, I got here before the team. Everything was nice and organized. The players were checked in. the passport were checked. The team had water. I rented a car. Those things come in handy and they're simple things that make a big difference. If all of us in Belize would get back together, just get together the way I do, I'm telling you, we would have a much better chance of advancing into further rounds. I know where I'm from. If you are born here, you born here. I am a Belizean and I still talk my creole and I still eat rice and beans every day. So for me, people say you're wasting your time. I'm not wasting my time, you know where it is? It's that I'm doing something that makes me happy and I'm doing something that's right and that the team needs. I'm going to say something, I don't work for the players, I don't work for the federation, I work for Belize. They are playing for our Belize and they just go out there represent and just make themselves proud, make their family proud and most importantly make us proud. I don't care if we go out there and we lose 10-nil. I don't care if we lose 15-nil. I don't care. As long as I see the guys give their best."

Jules Vasquez
"Now, win, lose or draw? How would you feel if they made history and made it into the 3rd round of the World Cup qualifiers?"

Justin Avila - Team Belize SUPERFAN
"I would feel anyway because you are going to make history. We're going to win this game today. We are going to win this game and we are going on to the next round and we're going to shut up all the negative people in Belize. We're going to win this game."

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