BERMUDA head national football coach is crossing his fingers that the $36 million, six-year plan to revamp local football will come true.Kyle Lightbourne and his assistant Paul Scope both said the game is badly in need of investment if Bermuda are going to be a force to reckon with.

“It would be great if we could get something — right now we are on a shoestring budget,” said Lightbourne this week.

Earlier this week Bermuda Football Association boss Larry Mussenden revealed the ambitious plan and asked Government to come up with $24 million over the six year period from 2006-2012. The BFA have produced an 85-page strategic planning document.

Lightbourne has had to sit on the sidelines and watch money to the tune of $11 million pour into cricket after Bermuda qualified for the 2007 World Cup.

The former pro said Bermuda’s various national teams need to play against quality opposition if they are going to improve and not have the piecemeal matches that occur now. But leaving Bermuda to play or even bringing in teams can prove to be very costly.

“We need games against quality opposition. It is so important — you find out a lot about players when you go against top opposition,” said Lightbourne pointing to the crushing defeat Bermuda’s Under-20 side suffered over a week ago to Haiti (11-1).

Then came the 3-1 defeat to Jamaica and the 5-1 loss to the Netherland Antilles in qualifying for the Under-20 World Cup.

“Our general preparation could be better — especially the younger teams like the Under-20s,” he said.

And although Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, Lightbourne said they were far better prepared that Bermuda were.

“They have their teams in three-month training camps — things like that. They (Haiti) learned a lot about their players some time ago and our players were not able to overcome that in such a short space of time.

“Football is the main outlet in Haiti. In Bermuda there are just so many distractions while in Haiti they just concentrate on football. Bermuda was like that years ago — the guys concentrated on their sport and it was football, football, football. Now it is football and then something else in between — there are just so many distractions today.”

Assistant coach Scope said: “Any money raised for football has to be a good thing considering how many young Bermudians the sport touches. And I also really think improving football will have a direct effect on some of Bermuda’s social ills. The reason we are forming the USL team is to improve football generally, and the senior national team in particular. We want to work hand-in-hand with the BFA to achieve these goals.”

Of the trip to Haiti, Scope said: “It was a humbling experience in Haiti both on and off the pitch.

“On the pitch we were simply not good enough in any of the games, although if we had played all the games like we did against Jamaica, we would have made a better fist of it. Against Jamaica we played well but we just couldn’t match them for fitness, both physically and mentally, especially after the mauling we received from Haiti.“To put things into perspective, Haiti have seven million people and of course who-knows how many millions living abroad, so they are always going to be a powerhouse of the Caribbean. There doesn’t seem to be any major sports other than football in Haiti which is also one of the few ways out of abject poverty for their young people.”

Lightbourne said: “We have to prepare a lot better for tournaments and play against opposition that is better than the teams here. That is when we find out about the players and they get to learn as well.”

But the cost of bringing in teams and going away on tour can be prohibitive.

“We can’t really afford to bring teams in and can’t afford to leave Bermuda. Every time we go away it costs in the region $40,000. You can’t do that every month. It is an expensive exercise,” said Lightbourne.

Of the three matches in Haiti, Scope said: “The conditions must make it one of the toughest away venues in football so it was always going to be difficult, especially for our locally based players. It was noticeable that our overseas college-based players handled the difficulties better.

“Having said that two of the better Bermuda-based performers, Keishen Bean and Shayne Hollis, have had overseas experience in places like Brazil and Cuba and they coped better than most. Hopefully all of the squad will have learned valuable lessons from the trip and it further endorses that the more players we can help get overseas experience, the better.

“We did our best to get the right food and enough water — the BFA’s head of delegation, Lee Holder, did a great job in very trying circumstances. But in the end the food was basically the same for every meal and we didn’t always get it at the right time before games. We also had a lot of travel — in fact we travelled more than any other team.

“No other team had to play all of their games at 3 p.m. in the afternoon which is the hottest part of the day with temperatures over 100 degrees. And by the time we played the Netherland Antilles in Port au Prince, they had the advantage of having played all their games on the artificial surface without travelling which proved to be a distinct advantage.

“Having said all of that we didn’t perform to our potential and we learned that we have a ways to go at this age level when playing the likes of Haiti and Jamaica. The most disappointing result was the last one against Netherland Antilles but with hindsight the guys were spent mentally and physically by the time we played that game.”