First Steps Taken Towards Revitalizing Berger Field
After a false start almost nine years ago, today there was a second pledge to transform the Berger Field on Vernon Street into a football stadium. Three parties, the Minister of Sports, Kevin Bernard, along with Pickstock Area Representative, Anthony Mahler, and Football Federation of Belize President, Sergio Chuc signed a Memorandum of Understanding to upgrade the field to attract young residents with a love of the game. Marion Ali was at the signing at the Marion Jones Stadium and filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The symbolic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding seeks to deliver on a new promise to convert and remodel the historic Berger Football Field into what it had originally set out to be. The signatories plan to recreate a field that would produce the kinds of football stars that have made Belize proud in the past – such names like Deon McCauley and Ian Gaynair. Pickstock Area Representative, Anthony Mahler, explained that he decided to do something to reshape the field that has for decades been neglected.
Anthony Mahler, Area Representative, Pickstock
“Some years ago, I approached my friend over at the FFB and just recently I approached Minister Bernard for us to seriously look at the Berger Field and to use it as a pilot or another project that we can use to showcase the football skills that we have in this country and to do it in a tripartite kind of arrangement.”
Mahler explained that the three parties, himself, Minister Bernard and the FFB will raise the funds to upgrade the field. The monies, he said, have already been identified, so the promise this time will not be merely lip-service. President of the FFB, Sergio Chuc, said the project will be the first of what they plan to replicate in other communities.
Sergio Chuc, President, FFB
“This project is going to be the first big one ya in the city, and I hope we could collaborate with other projects, because at the end a the day, the federation is all about assisting the community in getting football played, and whoever wants to partner with us, we are open for it. Think Mr. Jones alluded to, if there are any private enterprises out there that want to do something in their community, then the F.F.B. is there to assist once it is about football.”
The plan for the field is already being derived and the residents of the area will play a part in managing the field for their children’s use. The project will serve to do much more than to rehabilitate a historic field. It will serve to engage the youths of southside Belize City in something positive.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Sports
“Reviving Berger Field and while we open back sports to its full potential, we need to create those space where our young people, our athletes, can engage on a daily basis. We are trying to encourage positivity for our Belizean people, and especially in the southside of Belize City. And so, this MoU signing today shows the level of partnership that can be built.”
Deputy Director of the National Sports Council, Marvin Ottley also hailed from Berger Field and he was happy about the project that is planned for the location.
Marvin Ottley, Deputy Dir., National Sports Council
“Myself and a few others have spent all our life on that field. Just a few years ago we did some improvement on the field and Councilor Mile Novelo was a part of our youth program, Raptors Youth Football Program. We have seen that program move from twenty kids from through a Scouting Association Project, to a hundred and thirty kids in two months. That’s what Berger Field is to that community. So this initiative will certainly, certainly mean a lot to the children in that community and to the people who still exist in the community.”
Minister Bernard informed that there is a committed to take sports where it ought to be and that the Government has pledged to increase the budget for sports. Marion Ali for News Five.
Sergio Chuc
Marvin Ottley
