Clifford King withdraws claim against Premier League of Belize

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: Clifford King withdraws claim against Premier League of Belize in what he terms an “act of good faith”.

“In a spirit of good faith, my colleagues and I have determined that at this time the most appropriate means of restoring a semblance of normalcy at the Premier League of Belize is to withdraw our Claim as lodged in the Courts of Belize,” King wrote to the PLB Secretary-General Wilhelm Miguel.

“In addition though, we also anticipate that your Office will formally notify all relevant football organizational entities including the FFB and CONCACAF of this development.

“In doing so, we anticipate that the FFB, and as necessary and required, through the intervention of CONCACAF will seek to address the internal conflicts amongst the Members of the PLB,” said King who had sought the injunction along with Ernest Banner and Andres Makin.

Earlier, Clifford King was elected President of the Premier League of Belize. His presidency, however, was not recognized by the Football Federation of Belize because King and his Executive, said the FFB, were not elected in an FFB sanctioned elective congress. King disagrees. When the PLB attempted to proceed with an elective congress recognized by the FFB, King applied for an injunction to stop the PLB from proceeding. Though the Supreme Court advised mediation, the impasse was solved, so King went forward with the application and the Supreme Court served the injunction.

That barred the PLB from proceeding with their annual tournaments.

Pressed by Concacaf and FIFA that they had to play their national premier league competition or face sanctions, the FFB lobbied Government to allow contact sports and organized a Top League which started in October. The FFB claimed that the Top League is just a temporary tournament that they are organizing to fulfil the Concacaf and FIFA requirements and that once the PLB problems are solved, they will revert to the PLB.

But the Top League was not without controversy. The Belmopan Bandits accused the FFB of not being fair by not accepting all the PLB teams into the Top League and that the teams that support King were barred from participating. The Bandits said they would not participate in protest.

Despite the Bandits protest, the Top League went ahead and is now in its fourth week of action.

King’s withdrawal of the claim against the PLB could pave the way for elections and for the PLB National Championship to be reactivated in January after the Top League finishes its tournament in December.

“The Government of Belize has now opened the country for the engagement of contact and competitive sports and the PLB now has the opportunity to restart its footballing preparation processes,” closed King.

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