Belize’s Mexico Sports Centre Looks “Like a Ghost”

The President of the North America, Central America, and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA), Cristobal Hoffiz, visited Belize this weekend to chair the Association of Central American Volleyball Federations (AFECAVOL) general assembly.

One key issue that emerged from discussions was the deteriorating condition of the Mexico Sports Centre in Belize City. During his speech, Hoffiz said, “I was very sad and brokenhearted when I saw the Mexican Centre. That cannot continue like that. It’s not possible that almost for three years it has been abandoned.”

He added, “It’s destroyed. It’s like a ghost. We need to fix that.”

The centre was damaged by Hurricane Lisa in 2022. It later became an eyesore. “As I said, everything else is easy to obtain: equipment, coaches. Anything you need, and we can do that with NORCECA.”

He stated that the lack of suitable venues is a barrier to the development of sports in Belize. “You can have everything in sport, but if you don’t have venues where you can develop everything in sport, you are not going to go anywhere.”

Hoffiz urged Sports Minister Rodwell Ferguson to take stronger action to address this issue. He told to the Minister Ferguson, “We need you to yell, not to speak; we need you to bang your hands on the table and demand from the parliament of Belize, demand very strongly, don’t be afraid of demanding the necessary support and budget. You need to do that.”

When asked about it, Ferguson told News 5, “As the minister responsible for sports, I recognise that it was destroyed after the last hurricane.” He added, “I am in dialogue with Mexico, and I believe that they have agreed to figure out how we can bring back the Mexican centre to its original state.”

“We need to do something about that. It cannot be like that. We cannot just look the other way. We have to look at it every day, and we have to do something about the Mexican Centre,” Hoffiz said.