Having Dandy Town, Devonshire Cougars and Robin Hood replay their group B Dudley Eve Trophy matches to break a deadlock would have broken the competition’s rules and set “a very bad precedent”.

The Bermuda Football Association were presented with a rare headache after the trio of clubs finished the group stage locked in a three-way tie, which ultimately meant that they had be separated with a drawing of lots.

Town and Robin Hood got the luck of the draw and will now face PHC Zebras and Somerset Trojans in the semi-finals.

Prior to Town’s final group match with Robin Hood the BFA had confirmed that there was nothing in the rules governing the competition to deal with such a deadlock, and that the executives would have to make a decision on how to break the tie.

However, upon further review of the rules it was discovered that the drawing of lots to settle deadlocks had, in fact, been drafted into the competition’s rules several years ago.

“The drawing of lots as a tiebreaker was drafted after the 2011 competition because we were faced with a similar situation and that’s why we amended the clause,” Shannon Burgess, BFA Competitions Committee deputy chairman, said. “Going into the final game in that particular group we would have been faced with a similar situation and on the back of that we drafted the amendment as it reads now.

“We have never experienced this before, but we could have in 2011 and that prompted the change.”

Stephen Coddington, the BFA Competitions chairman, added: “At our meeting with the clubs there were certain rules we had to follow regarding tiebreakers and so it was in the best interest of football to follow the rules.

“If we go away from the rules it sets a very bad precedent and then the next time something happens you want this rule changed and you just can’t do that.”