For weeks, we've been telling you all about the fights within in the executive of the Football Federation of Belize, which remains scandalized even after the Bertie Chimilio Administration.
The latest disturbances are two well-known candidates, Sergio Chuc and Cruz Gamez, who have been barred from running in the upcoming elections for a new FFB Executive.
Last year, Chuc, Gamez, and acting President, Marlon Kuylen, made a move against the then president Ruperto Vicente, just weeks before the May Elections. That ended when Kuylen had to step in to run the Federation in the absence of a President Elect. The elections between Chuc and Vicente ended in a stalemate even after 22 rounds of voting, and effectively, the coup that these 3 orchestrated was somewhat successful in getting Vicente unseated from the presidency.
Well, Elections are to take place in 12 days from now, but Sergio Chuc can't participate. That's because Vicente made a complaint against him, that he has acted in a way that is improper. Vicente says that the donations he made to football league teams amount to bribery, and that he has an unfair advantage.
The FFB conducted an investigation, and they say that there is merit to the complaint.
A decision the decision taken last week by the FFB Electoral Appeals Committee to block Chuc's candidacy.
He got an attorney to write to the FFB pleading their case, and and he was been cleared by the FFB's Disciplinary Committee.
But, the Electoral Committee dismissed that letter from the disciplinary committee noting that it was not even on official letterhead, and that it showed many inconsistencies.
In the end, the Appeals Committee ruled that both men are still ineligible to contest the elections on June 24th.
Today, Chuc went public with the private war to tell the nation that he is being unfairly accused, and that he has not been given a fair chance to clear his name.
He held a press conference today to make the point.
Sergio Chuc, Presidential Candidate - FFB
"As you have heard at this point my candidacy has been rejected. The rejection of my candidacy came about one allegations of bribery and interference within the electoral process. These allegations came from specifically 2 individuals. The first allegations came directly from my political opponent for the position of presidency of the Football Federation of Belize, Mr. Vicente, who was the previous president until April of last year when you clearly recall we went for 22 rounds of elections and the 22 rounds we got 50% of the vote each."
"The allegations Mr. Vicente made against me is basically for bribery. He put forward a letter for the federation saying that my contributions specifically to the premier league of Belize with transportation and uniform would be considered a form of bribery. The disciplinary committee is functional and is made up of up 3 Belizean attorneys. These attorneys looked at the allegations and wrote back the FFB saying there was not an iota of evidence for bribery against me and that there was no prima facie case to be made against me. So that was put aside. However, when the Electoral Committee came to vet my candidacy, this information was not presented to them, only the allegations and they rejected my candidacy based solely on those allegations."
"So as you can see, I tried to appeal; the next process was to appeal to the Appeal's Committee. As you can see the process is very flawed. The people from the electoral committee are people basically that were installed there by Mr. Vicente when he was president of the football federation on Belize. Now that leaves me out not being able to participate in the next election for president of the football federation of Belize."
So, what does Chuc intend to do? Well, he is hoping that the constituents of the FFB Congress will not show up at the June 24 Elections, which means that no elections can happen. That would allow for him to an appeal to an international tribunal. Here's his plea to those voters:
Sergio Chuc, Presidential Candidate - FFB
"Election it seems will proceed unless the members, there are 8 members decide that they don't want to show up to congress. Remember for there to be an election, for there to be a proper congress, there must be fifty plus one percent of the members attending the congress. So far, I am at liberty to say that about sixty percent of the people who are voting have said that they don't like the idea that my candidacy was thrown out on these charges; that they are prepared not to go to Congress. So the only next move I see possible at this time, the quickest one, would be for these voters not to attend congress. And so we have the pledge of sixty percent that they will not be attending the congress."
"Four of the associations have actually signed a letter. Three of the associations plus the league. The league has 30% of the votes and each associations have 10% of the vote. That is why I am saying we have 60% who have signed on to a letter committing themselves to transparency and to fair play and asking CONCACAF to please intervene and stop the process or restart a new process with a new electoral committee and take out the malpractices and let it be more transparent."
"We are hoping that the congress members would do the right thing and just not who up to this rigged election."
So, did he bribe anyone? That's what we asked, and here's how he answered:
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Do you reject the allegations that you bribe anyone?"
Sergio Chuc, Presidential Candidate - FFB
"Yes. That is complete nonsense. The people who have been following football know that I've been involved for 15 - almost 20 years. I've sponsored several of the top teams, I've been involved with the league, I've been involved with the federation, I've been involved with the female clubs and my companies have continually donated to the league, to the associations, to the federation. We've continually been assisting and we continue to assist. So it's nothing strange for anybody who's involved with football right now to see a team out there with a Westline logo. Its 2-fold, it's the generosity because I love the game and at the same time it is a marketing strategy from my company that build goodwill with the commuters."
"The people who benefitted from the league - the teams, none of them could vote. They can't vote. It's the executive of the league that votes. It's not the team."
We'll have more from this press conference in tomorrow's newscast, including Ruperto Vicente's take on the reasons he decided to complain.
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