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On a recent trip to Spain, to complete her CONCACAF B License, and UEFA C License, the newly appointed National Sports Council Director, Iris Centeno convinced the technical staff from the "Tavernes" Football Club in Spain to pay a visit to Belize, to conduct a series of football clinics across the country. The four representatives, 2 players and 2 coaches, were officially welcomed today by the NSC before they commenced their first clinic this afternoon at Berger field in Belize City:
Rodwell Feruguson, Minister of Youth Sports and Transport
"Well first of all I want to give kudos to the new director of our National sports council Ms Iris Centeno. I monitored her movements maybe for the last three years and I believe that she would have been very passionate about trying to improve sports in this county. So she was not appointed by me, or anything political. I want to see the sports department grow and I believe she is going to do a good job with her team. And so now just connecting with Spain is magnificent for Belize because Spain didn't even know where Belize was. And because of Iris, she was an ambassador to Belize and she brought them here."
"According to Iris this is only the beginning it will be an exchange programme between ourselves and spain so i'm hopeful that this will go very big and eventually we will see the mileage from it."
Iris Centeno, Director, National Sports Council
"And I had the opportunity when I went to Tavernes to express to them how much it meant to me to make a difference in my country. And I give thanks to the Football Federation of Belize because through them we were able to get the scholarship for me to go to Spain. And now by the blessing of the minister, I am now the director of the National Sports Council. So I saw the opportunity there to convince Tavernes to come to Belize and have some sessions being run for us. They will be in the Federation running some sessions, they will also go around the country running some sessions, but for me I just want the country to understand it all goes down to making a difference and getting our youths and our kids see that through sports they can have a better life and better opportunities. And this is what I want to do with Tavernes I want to build a relationship, this bridge between Belize and Spain."
The other side of this exchange is that Belizean football players who are scouted will soon get a chance to train and compete in Spain.
