Football Federation threatens lawsuit over social media report, clarifies staff status

Published by BBN Staff at May 24, 2020

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Posted: Sunday, May 24, 2020. 9:32 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: Football Federation of Belize (FFB) president Sergio Chuc told Breaking Belize News this evening in a telephone interview that there will be a lawsuit for defamation filed against one Jesus Castillo, Sr., who posted a social media “scoop” on Thursday alleging mistreatment and termination of staff of the Federation only a day after unveiling a multi-million dollar upgrade of the FFB Stadium bleachers.

Chuc told us the Federation had worked hard to clean up its image and would not tolerate it being sullied again.

At the center of this brewing situation is the release of Kent and Christine ‘Jean’ Gabourel, a couple who had worked with the Federation for more than a decade and a half each. Kent Gabourel was goalkeeper coach and ground maintenance chief; ‘Jean’ was a cook and cleaner on behalf of the National Football Team.

As for the reports that up to 20 staff had been sent home, Chuc says that since March technical officers, office administrators, maintenance and cleaning staff have indeed been at home with nothing to do, but that they have been given full pay during that time.

They have since been informed that the Federation can pay their end-of-month pay for May and 2 weeks’ vacation pay in June, but nothing else until competitions restart, with Government approval, in August.

Meanwhile, senior executives have given up half their stipends; senior staff has given up 15 percent of theirs. Chuc specifically denied that executives got “close to half” of 12 thousand dollars in stipends monthly.

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