Larry Mussenden has leapt to the defence of the Bermuda Football Association in the wake of stinging criticism from Clyde Best over the wretched state of domestic football.

The BFA president was prepared to admit that the lack of regular matches for the national team since last summer was far from ideal, but he urged critics to consider the huge financial implications of a year-round fixture list before opening their mouths.

He did reveal, however, that the governing body was thinking very seriously about hiring a full-time development officer who would be responsible for lobbying the corporate world for extra cash.

Best argued earlier this week that Bermuda would stand no chance of being consistently competitive at international tournaments unless the national team played and trained together on a more regular basis.

Bermuda?s 3-0 defeat to the New England Revolution last Saturday night was their first international game for eight months.

?We at the BFA would dearly love to have a year-round fixture list for all of our national teams,? he said.

?What I think people don?t really understand is the cost of putting this in place. All things considered, whether we are playing home or away, it costs the BFA between $30,000 and $40,000 per match. Even when we?re at home, under FIFA protocols we have to pay for the visiting team?s accommodation and transportation when they are on the Island. It is also necessary for us to put our team up in a hotel the night before the game.

?On top of all this, we have to pay to even train at the National Sports Centre while on game days we must also pay to clear up all the trash left behind by the concession stands. When we are away we have to pay for the flights, accommodation and per diems for around 18 players and five officials.

?So the costs associated with organising and putting on international games are significant and at the moment we simply do not have that money available. We are still dealing with expenses dating back to the last World Cup qualifying campaign (in 2004) when we quite naturally had to play more games.

?We in the football family were as delighted as everybody else when the cricket team qualified for the World Cup and received the $11 million. But to put it into perspective, in order to achieve what they have done, we would need $11 million for the qualifying campaign and $11 million after we qualified.?

Mussenden conceded meanwhile that the BFA have had trouble tapping the corporate market in recent years because of ?challenges? with their annual accounts.

He revealed, however, that they have recently out-sourced responsibility for their financial affairs to Fairway Management (Bermuda) Ltd and insisted that their difficulties would soon be at an end.

It is understood it is almost five years since the BFA?s accounts have been satisfactorily audited.

But despite the financial restrictions, Mussenden continued, the national team programmes have still been active over the last few years, and he pointed to the World Cup qualifying campaigns of the senior, Under 20 and Under 17 national teams as evidence of this.

?We are also in the final stages of putting together a long-term strategy plan for the future of Bermuda football,? he said.

?A copy of that plan was recently submitted to FIFA and received an above average assessment, which means in terms of planning at least, we are in a stronger position than many other countries.

?We at the BFA believe that Bermuda has the ability to be one of the strongest teams in the CONCACAF region. We also recognise that there is a lot of concern for football in the community and there could be several million dollars a year made available from different quarters when we have overcome our accounting challenges ? which I believe will happen very shortly.?

The construction of a designated training facility at Prospect?s Gym Field is also going to begin soon, Mussenden said ? a facility which will eventually obliterate the high costs associated with training at the NSC.

?The first phase of this project we are expecting to get underway any day now,? he said.

?This will involve the laying of a synthetic surface and the erection of floodlights so that we have a adequate central training base for all our national teams.

?Phase two of the project will involve the building of some buildings to accommodate changing and class rooms while for the third phase we have identified a vacant lot of land adjacent to the centre where we would like to build a multi-storey building which could accommodate at least two full teams at any one time which would mean we would not have to pay extremely expensive hotel bills every time we bring a team in from overseas.

?There are no easy solutions for football at the moment. It is going to take some proper long-term planning at all levels as well as the commitment of everybody involved. I am thoroughly enthused about the way forward. We are about to set the budget for the qualifying campaigns for the next two World Cups as well as for the Digicel Cup later this year.

?I am confident that it will not be long before we are able to unveil a multi-million dollar programme towards the 2010 and the 2014 World Cups.?