Belize’s National Football team has defeated Montserrat in the second leg of the home and away World Cup qualifying series. The game Sunday afternoon in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. After ninety minutes of play, the Belize National football team defeated Montserrat by a final score of three goals to one.

According to information posted on the CONCACAF website, the goal scorers for Daniel Jimenez is the twenty fourth minutes, Deon McCaulay in the sixty first minute and Luis Mendez in the sixty third minute.

Mario Villaneva of the Belize National Football Team was issued with a Yellow card in the fifty second minute of the game.

In a telephone interview with the media from Honduras today, FFB Vice President Bernaldino Pech said “It’s a historic victory for Belize, for our boys, having shown the level that Belizean football has come to – tremendous improvement. People who know about football, who saw the game, are able to appreciate it is not the brute force type of football that they used to play in years past, but it’s a game that is flowing – there is movement of the ball and our players displayed great confidence. It is historic to be able to win six points out of six in a world cup qualifier.

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FIFA has formally reinstated the Football Federation of Belize in time for Belize to play Montserrat in a qualifying match for the World Cup. The game will now be played in Honduras, instead of in Belize as originally scheduled. FIFA, the world body governing football today lifted the suspension of the Football Federation of Belize which was imposed on June 17. A statement issued by the FIFA Emergency Committee notes that the lifting of the suspension was because of “some positive developments in the case as reported by the FFB to FIFA.”

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More on the Non Compos Mentis Minister of Tourism has come about from, surprise, former P.U.P. Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith in a commentary penned this week:

News of the double firing of scions of two Belize City, UDP families from their board of director positions at the Belize Tourism Board by the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia Jr., beggars political analysis.

At first, the nagging question about the termination of Deputy Chairman of the BTB, Mr. Santiago Castillo Jr, and director, Stanley Longsworth Jr., was whether the prime minister knew.  When it became apparent that the PM was standing by his minister’s decision, the relevant question became: why had they been fired?

Their fall from grace defies conventional political thinking because both men are from respected, old UDP families and both were – by their accounts – merely insisting on the (supposedly) defining principle of Barrow’s administration: accountability.

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Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has indicated his government’s determination to go ahead post haste with allowing drilling in protected national parks in southern Belize despite continuing opposition from residents and the indigenous Mayan nation of Belize. Speaking at a press conference in Belize City yesterday, Mr. Barrow stated that:

“In so far as national parks that are not offshore, onshore national parks are concerned I made it absolutely plain that the Government has no intention in stopping the exploration process, especially not in the Sarstoon Temash National Park. That area the geologists say is perhaps the highest potential area in the country and the question of the legality of drilling in the National Park went to Court and the Supreme Court gave a decision saying that this was perfectly consistent, perfectly in order. [Read more...]

Mike Singh Belize Tourism Board C.E.O.

The challenges in the Belize Tourism industry seem to have gone from bad to worse and from somewhat confusing to downright complex.  On Friday last, Prime Minister Dean Barrow led a delegation of individuals, (dubbed by Channel Seven News as the “Fantastic Four”) to a meeting in Miami that was supposed to resolve the situation and present Belize’s point of view to the cruise ship people.  At least, that is what we were led to believe.

Upon arriving back in the country on Monday, Mr. Barrow called a press conference and assured the Belizean stakeholders that his mission had been “a success.”  Success however, as always, is a rather subjective matter. According to Mister Barrow, his objective was never to stave off the aggressive assault of cruise operators and their attempt to manipulate and monopolize the cruise ship industry in Belize but instead, to obtain a “stay.”  Really!

According to Mr. Barrow, while he was able to negotiate for such a stay, unfortunately “the length of the stay has not yet been determined”.   Mr. Barrow went on to inform the nation that while “we are thinking in terms of a year” that Carnival Cruise Lines was in fact, “thinking in terms of weeks.”  Obviously, Carnival was more like thinking in terms of, hours.  Less than 24 hours after Mr. Barrow’s announcement, representatives of Carnival met with cruise tenders in Belize and informed them that Mr. Barrow had gotten it all wrong. [Read more...]