Posted on July 12, 2011
Belize will get an opportunity to reach the second round of World Cup qualifying after all.
The Central American side will play the home leg of its CONCACAF preliminary round World Cup qualifier against Montserrat on Sunday in Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
That came about after FIFA provisionally lifted the suspension of the Central American nation last week.
Belize recorded a 5-2 victory in the first leg of the series in Couva, Trinidad & Tobago on June 15.
FIFA’s emergency committee put in abeyance its suspension of the Belize Football Federation. The decision was acted upon by the World Cup Organizing Committee. The World Cup panel ordered the match be played outside of Belize “in order to avoid the risk that the Belizean authorities do not provide security guarantees,” FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke wrote in a letter to BFF president Bertie Chimilio.
Two days after the team’s win over Montserrat, FIFA suspended Belize, three days before the originally scheduled match date in Belmopan, Belize.
Valcke wrote to Chimilio at the time that the decision was due to a dispute between the BFF and the government that that resulted in authorities failing to assure the safety of the “visiting team and officials.”
Categories: Belize, Caribbean, Central America, CONCACAF, Montserrat, World Cup Qualifying
Tags: Bertie Chimilio, CONCACAF, FIFA, FIFA emergency committee, Jerome Valcke, World Cup qualifying
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