When Kyle Lightbourne took over as national team coach two years ago, he was asked the relatively controversial question: ?Would you like to see your entire national squad play abroad?? His equally controversial answer was a resounding ?yes?.

And then when Paul Scope, who has as many contacts in England as he does in Bermudian insurance, joined up as Lightbourne?s number two, that dream began to be realised.

Placing Bermudians abroad is a painstaking process, not so much due to any lack of talent, but historically due to work permit issues, money and access.

But Scope, who is proving to be as much some form of zero-profit football agent as a regular assistant coach, is certainly doing his best to promote the Bermudian footballer players? diaspora.

?It obviously benefits the players themselves, but it is also what they bring back to the team,? said Scope, who did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to get Khano Smith from Dandy Town to Bean Town, acting as a go-between to inspire the New England Revolution move.

?England was always the main target but there were a lot of problems with work permits due to Bermuda?s world ranking. Stephen Astwood was offered a contract by David Moyes when he was at Preston but it never came off ? I still think Stevie can get over to England, he?s definitely good enough, but it is hard now.

?With the collapse of the TV deals in England, even though Bermudians can now get British passports, a lot of the clubs have reduced their squad sizes.

?It is still going to be possible, but I think players are going to have to do it the hard way, rather than just walk into big clubs straight away.?

Scope has a ton of contacts from his non-league playing days (more about them later), with former team-mates of a similar age now nicely positioned in the coaching ranks at a selection of the big clubs in the UK.

Although the likeable Geordie could probably call in a favour whenever he likes, he doesn?t want to ?waste them? getting trials for players who would be out of their depth.

?It is all about timing and getting the right player to the right place,? he continued during an interview conducted in his spectacular corner office with a view that would make most of his former St. Albans team-mates jealous.

?I could call in favours but the guys would only be letting the player have a trial for the sake of pleasing me, and not actually looking at them.

?You have to get it right or you are wasting everyone?s time. To be honest, I think the only way we are going to get another Shaun Goater is if a player does it the hard way.

?You look at Shaun, okay he went to Manchester United, but he had to go out on loan to Rotherham and then work his way up through the leagues to make it.

?I think that is how it is going to happen again ? a player starting in one of the lower leagues and working their way up.?

Damon Ming, the diminutive winger who used to play at Somerset Trojans where Scope is an assistant coach to Dennis Brown, is currently playing for Hayes in the Nationwide South having had trials at Oxford, Barnet ? courtesy of former Scope team-mate Paul Fairclough ? Southend and then playing at a couple of other semi-pro teams.

On top of that there is Kevin Richards, who once got drafted by Major League Soccer?s Colorado Rapids, and is threatening to do something in the English game.

And then you have the opportunities in America.

Scope made the most of Revolution coach Steve Nicol?s ?I wouldn?t mind a striker? comment, helping Smith into one of the best teams in the MLS.

Plus there is John Barry Nusum at the Virginia Beach Mariners in the Major Indoor Soccer League ? ?he should be playing in the MLS or even in Europe, his style of play is perfectly suited for England,? is Scope?s verdict.

The next generation of players ? of which North Village?s Keishen Bean is seen as the best hope for Goater-esque levels of success ? are likely to progress through the ranks in American colleges rather than jumping straight into the pro game.

?The opportunities are incredible over there,? continued Scope, whose nephew has just gone on scholarship.

?From a life experience point of view as well as just football, the college system is great for our players. We have had a lot of girls going through the ranks and now we have a lot of the boys doing the same. The national team is going to get some cracking players coming through, there is a generation of players at college who are going to come back to Bermuda with plenty to offer.?

After 23 years in Bermuda, Scope is very well known both in sporting and business circles, but all could have been very different for the son of a railwayman/pro boxer born in 1956 in Pelton Fell, not far from Newcastle.

As a youngster, he was good at everything. Like Wayne Rooney, he did a bit of boxing, but also played rugby, cricket and was no mean runner, notching four minute 20 second miles for his county Northumberland.

But football was always his best sport and despite his lack of size, he managed to play for Newcastle schoolboys and then signed on amateur forms with Middlesbrough ? along with former Manchester United and England centre back Gary Pallister.

But things didn?t quite work out for Scope in the pro ranks, and he set out on the non-league trail for Gateshead, Dunstable and St. Albans.

All the while he played with some great players either on their way up or down, including Chelsea and England?s Kerry Dixon and Graham Rix, many of whom he has stayed in contact with.

He also enjoyed a couple of decent FA Cup runs, one of which saw St. Albans take on Torquay United in the third round, forcing them to a replay before ultimately succumbing.

?Those were fantastic years,? recalled Scope.

?We had some great fans at St. Albans ? there were no league clubs nearby so we had a lot of genuine fans and we would get as many as 1,000 people to our games.

?I loved the camaraderie of the non-league game. I had some good years and made some great friends.?

Always inwardly keeping the dream of professional football alive, Scope took on any old office job to supplement his income and it just happened to be insurance ? a career that was ultimately going to draw him to the Island he now calls home.

With an insurance job beckoning, and Scope fancying a change of lifestyle, he set his heart on Bermuda.

A lack of research had left him assuming this wasn?t a footballing Island and he did not even bother packing his boots. He instead dreamed of resurrecting his cricketing career.

But a phone call from Eddie Murphy , a Hotels stalwart, gave Scope an indication that he might get to play some football and he ended up signing for BAA ? under now BFA technical committee chairman Jon Beard ? where he captained the side to relegation from the old First Division.

He than left the Island for unrelated reasons for around 18 months ? ?I have never played outside the top league? ? before returning again to the side who had since been promoted back up to the top flight.

He played for them again ? there was another relegation ? and also captained Vasco.

?I never won anything, but I helped a lot of teams get relegated,? he joked.

?I think the best I did was about fourth with Vasco one year.?

He then took a six-year hiatus from playing football to concentrate on building up the business he started ? judging from his office size it was six years well spent ? and then at 39 he returned to the game.

?I was going through a divorce at the time and I think playing again was what I needed socially as much as anything,? he continued.

?I joined up with the boys from the Robin Hood after playing for Colonial in a six-a-side tournament and ended up player-coach with them.?

Even as an 18-year-old, Scope thought he might have a future in coaching and did the first of his coaching badges then.

While coaching the Hood to five titles in ten years he also took his official coaching badges ? including the all-important UEFA B licence.

In those days under Mark Trott as national team coach, there were four men?s teams and a ladies team running with two coaches for each.

Even though they weren?t all constantly playing matches, they trained regularly and Scope was slotted into the women?s assistant coach role behind Vance Brown, his first job in the national set up.

?Women?s football is getting better all the time and we really have the potential to improve dramatically now that a lot of our girls are going to college on scholarships and picking soccer as their main sports,? he said.

His move towards the men?s game happened when Trott took a tour to Iowa and the assistant pulled out for work commitments. Scope filled the void admirably and Trott was sufficiently impressed that he was to later take the Englishman to Somerset.

When he left there and former national team skipper Dennis Brown took over, Scope stayed on as assistant.

Having met Lightbourne while getting trials for Smith, Astwood and Ming at Oxford, he realised quickly he shared a lot in common with the soon-to-be national coach and when Kenny Thompson left the top job, Scope was first choice as the former Walsall man?s assistant.

?He is a great bloke,? said Scope about his boss.

?He runs a great training session, the players all respect him and we share similar ideas about how the game is played. He is also very good at giving me a bit of flexibility because of my job, just like Dennis is at Somerset giving me flexibility because of my work with the national team.

?I think we work well together as a team.?

Working together as a national management team is one thing, but they could soon be working together as club managers.

Scope, along with Lightbourne and their mutual friend Shaun Goater, have put in an application to join the USL, the second tier of football stateside beneath the Major Soccer League.

A rival bid from Clyde Best?s Setplay organisation is understood to have also been submitted, but from Scope?s point of view it is all about the national team, not which group gets the right to put a Bermuda side in.

?If they get it, we will support them, if we get it, we hope they will support us,? he continued.

?It?s not about who is running the team, it?s about whether or not there is a team. This is an incredible opportunity for us to really advance the national team.

?Our biggest problem has always been Bermuda?s isolation. It costs us about $25,000 to play any matches, that?s got to be more than most other countries in the world.

?It makes things really difficult ? any progress we make in a World Cup year is always lost because we don?t keep the guys playing.

?This could be the solution.?

With a core of elite players, and the ability to draw from both the college players and those competing in the domestic league, an unofficial Bermuda national team will have access to 18 games each summer ? with all the obvious benefits that will give them.

And the ultimate aim of this?

?We know our limitations, and qualifying for the World Cup is probably beyond even our wildest dreams,? he continued, throwing in his catchphrase ?to be honest with you? at every turn.

?They seem to have regionalised us with the two Virgin Islands and Dominica, which is fine by us, so the aim is to deal with the next level of competition.

?We want to be able to compete with the Jamaicans, the Haitians and Trinidad even though they have the massive advantage over us of professional domestic leagues.

?This team can go a lot further with the sort of talent we have, but it is about making the most of this talent, trying to get the guys playing regularly and as many of them as possible playing abroad.

?It?s a great programme to be involved with.?

While scouting at the Island Games on behalf of the women?s team, Scope fell into another Bermudian sporting programme he is loving.

Teaming up once again with Beard, Scope helped out in Shetland last year after one of the executive couldn?t make it and has now found himself heavily involved in the bid to bring the Games to Bermuda.

Although losing out in 2011 to the Isle of Wight, Scope is as confident as everyone else involved in the multi-sport event that 2013 will be the year.

?I think it is going to happen and it is going to be very exciting for Bermuda,? he continued with the sort of enthusiasm he is able to exhibit both about sport and, amazingly, the ins and outs of the insurance world.

?It?s like a mini-Olympics and the atmosphere is going to be fantastic. When it comes here we are going to put on something that is going to blow everyone away, including the people of Bermuda as well all our visitors.?

Scope, like everyone involved in the Island Games movement, has been seduced by the camaraderie and competitiveness of the event, enjoying the thrill of Shetland as much as any of athletes.

?It was great to see the volleyball players being supported by the gymnasts, and the sailors supporting the football team and all of that. It is a real team event and there was a great sense of identity about the whole thing.

?And what was great was that Bermuda were very competitive in every event. That?s good for all involved and helps people improve and learn to compete on even bigger stages.?

There is talk of taking, at the very least, a women?s football team to Rhodes next year and possibly a men?s team, either senior or age group.

One thing is for certain, Paul Scope will be there.

Whether as an organiser, a coach, or, if necessity demands it, a player, Scope will be there, he will be passionate, he will be vocal and he will be committed ? and he will do everything he can to insure Bermuda wins.