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Aside from the official ceremonies on September tenth, a friendly match will be played with a renowned international football team in the nation’s capital. The stage has been set for a regional showcase for bragging rights between Belize’s national team and Trinidad and Tobago. FFB President Bertie Chimilio says the idea for the competition was born during this year’s World Cup tournament. He stopped by our news studio today to tell us how the preparations for the matching are coming along.

“While in South Africa earlier this year the general secretary and I had an opportunity to talk to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, all the islands, we spoke to all the Caribbean guys and told them listen we want to play you guys and see where we are however it’s very expensive for us to come by you. And so the guy from T&T Mr. Richard—I don’t remember his name right now—but he hit up the offer, spoke to his president and that’s how it came along. Then the national team manager contacted our general secretary and they contacted me and so the ball started getting rolling in early July.”

Isani Cayetano
“I notice that there have also been some renovations done to the field in Belmopan.  Can you speak to us a bit on that?”

Bertie Chimilio
“Well it’s not really renovations, it’s part of an ongoing project, you know. Many years ago we had a vision to have our own facility and so we pressed government, pressed government, government after government since 1998 and nothing has been happening so we decided to use the FIFA monies wisely and in stages construct a facility that will eventually become a stadium. Late last year we got a visit from our guys, our friends at Caribbean Tires and they offered us some help and for those who have been passing up and down they could see that apart from the seating facility completed, we now have some light towers up and hopefully in the not too distant future we will be able to play all of our international official matches here in Belize.”

Chimilio left for Panama today to meet with football officials there to determine which country Belize will play in January to qualify for the regional cup. Chimilio also said that the national team stands a good chance of defeating Trinidad and Tobago next Friday because it has been training rigorously at the newly renovated facility. News Five will have more on this story in tomorrow’s newscast.