Union in the 1980 Olympic Games was the ultimate triumph of amateurism over professionalism? You couldn't be more wrong.

"Wonderful'' though the moment may have been to millions of Americans, the US players, with their fancy scholarships and the freedom to train all day long, were nothing more than "apprentice professionals'' themselves.

At least, that's the heart-breaking theory propagated by Brendan `proud to be amateur' Bolen, a senior defensive linebacker with Georgetown University's football team in a `greed or honour' debate in Bermuda on Friday between representatives of the football teams of the universities of Washington and Lee, in Virginia, and Georgetown, in Washington, D.C.

There can be no better place to hold a discussion about money and sport than Bermuda, a microcosm of capitalism where local residents earn an average income of $30,000 a year and go crazy about soccer and cricket.

The two universities, who played football against each other the next day in the first Bermuda Bowl, were debating whether only amateur athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics.

The US Dream Team's cake-walk through the basketball competition at the Barcelona Olympics and Shaquille O'Neal's refusal to take part in the next Games due to a sponsorship row came in for criticism at the debate.

And the mere thought of an athlete, like pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, breaking a world record by the smallest possible increment every week or so to earn maximum cash bonuses was more than clean-cut, boy-next-door Tom Mason, a running back for Washington and Lee, could bear.

"What is the world coming too?'' argued Tom in front of a 200 strong audience of fellow players, tutors, parents and some locals, capitalists all, who struggled to grasp exactly where he was coming from.

They appeared more tuned in to the arguments of Washington and Lee's right tackle Robert Turner who proudly declared that the true amateur has never existed and said the normally loquacious Greeks didn't even have a word for it.

"The idea that ancient Greeks competed for an olive branch stemmed from a tongue-in-cheek joke,'' said Big Bob, as he is known to his team-mates.

And debating partner Brendan Bolen, proving that you don't have to be old to be cynical, added: "Amateurism is a myth and has been for a long, long time.'' The last word, however, belonged to Brock Dubin, Georgetown's offensive guard.

Sights like Michael Jordan, who was endorsed by a rival company, covering up the sponsorship logo on his official American jacket during the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona and Shaquille O'Neal refusing to play for the Coca-Cola-sponsored US basketball team because he represents Pepsi were a disgrace, he argued.

"It kills the spirit of the Games,'' he told the audience. His "honour over money'' speech was enough to convince even the capitalists in the audience.

However, moments after the all-Bermudian panel of judges awarded Mason and Dubin the decision, it was announced for the umpteenth time that the debate's sponsor, retailer Trimingham's, was remaining open into the night to allow players, officials and their parents the opportunity to buy local goods, at sale prices, of course. The irony was lost on everyone.

* * * BUC Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul may well be regretting forecasting that the international business community would react with a "yawn'' to the Bermuda Fire & Marine/BF&M crisis.

Since the story was broken in The Royal Gazette on November 2, it has made the front pages of Lloyd's List newspaper and the National Underwriter magazines and has also been reported on in Business Insurance magazine and several British newspapers, including the Sunday Telegraph, and the Financial Times.