Larry Mussenden, the Bermuda Football Association president, believes anti-social behaviour is not a football issue but a community one.

He has appealed to everyone to help tackle the problem, particularly prevalent among young people, that is plaguing the Island.

“We are asking everybody to have a look at the young people that exist in our lives and our families and look them in the eye and see if they are involved in any anti-social behaviour and to try to help them,” Mussenden said after yesterday’s Special Congress Meeting at Devonshire Recreation Club, which was called after the recent spate of gun violence.

“There are lots of organisations that have a listening ear for groups and neighbourhoods that feel affected, and tables for people to come and sit down and have discussions.”

He added: “Some community organisations have got to be able to reach out to then and come together and say ‘tell us what the problem is ... we want to hear, we want to help’.

“Bermuda Football Association is prepared to help make that happen and we know that there are other entities that are prepared to help also.”

Two shooting incidents took place on Remembrance Day last Tuesday — at the National Sports Centre and Somerset Cricket Club — resulting in four people being injured. There was subsequently another shooting incident on Thursday on Mount Hill Road, Pembroke.

After much discussion and consultation, the BFA postponed Premier Division, First Division, Player Development League and a youth match scheduled for the weekend and instead met with stakeholders at the Special Congress Meeting to develop an action plan on how the association can work with other organisations and the Government to tackle the violence.

“We think that working with other organisations as well as the Bermuda Government on addressing anti-social behaviour throughout the Island was paramount and for that reason the executive body of the Bermuda Football Association took the decision not to have football today,” Mussenden added. “We want the community to stop and think about what is actually going on.

“This is violence and in some cases gun violence that everybody in Bermuda should be concerned about and the football family is very concerned about it. We can’t continue with a cycle of violence.”

Shedding light on some of the topics discussed at the nearly three-hour long meeting, Mussenden said: “Some of the things we addressed included what we can do about fans who perhaps have a history of anti-social behaviour. That’s not the fan we want to have at a football game and we are going to meet with the Government later about how we can specifically address people who we do not want to come to football games.

“We also addressed deportment of our players and coaches, what happens on the field, respect for referees, our anti-social behaviour policy that we have and what we can do as clubs to reach out to our communities.”

Mussenden was pleased with the response from those who attended the meeting.

“It wasn’t just lip service,” he stressed. “It was serious discussion about the way forward for football and the community.

“The support was tremendous. We had all of our clubs attend and we are delighted to have the Premier, Minister of Sport as well as Senator Jeff Baron all attend. They spoke to the Congress, the Congress in turn had some questions and suggestions for them and the Premier has invited us to meet with the Government to discuss more things, which we are going to do.”

Mussenden said that senior football may resume this week.

“That’s the intention,” he added. “We want our programme to be back up and running and to get on with it.”