Bermuda's Football Association has been awarded $400,000 to help find a home of its own.

The BFA currently rents its Cedar Avenue headquarters but the organisation has made no secret of the need to relocate.

FIFA, world soccer's governing body, has sent development officer Keith Look Loy to the Island to meet with BFA chiefs and yesterday he announced the financial windfall.

Look Loy, one of 12 FIFA development officers globally, has spent time assessing the BFA's infrastructure.

After touring the Island he said the facilities were solid, but agreed that new offices for the organisation were necessary both because of a current lack of space and because they could be used to help generate revenue.

The cash, which will not go directly into BFA coffers, comes from FIFA's GOAL initiative - a scheme implemented by President Sepp Blatter in 1994 - the aim of which is to help promote the development of the game worldwide by assisting national associations.

Look Loy, who operates out of FIFA's offices in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, said: "It is a programme which is intended to deliver a variety of resources to national associations across the globe.

"What will normally happen is that a national association - for example the BFA - is selected into the programme and becomes an active member.

"Thereupon, I follow up investigations with the assistance of the national association to establish what the national priorities are."

In total, FIFA's offices in Port of Spain are responsible for 29 associations, including the BFA, while of the 204 FIFA members globally, a vast majority also fall under GOAL's umbrella.

"The majority of the work that we have been doing at this stage of the programme is the construction of physical infrastructure," said Look Loy.

"Largely training facilities and technical centres. We have 19 active projects in the Caribbean right now and we have delivered six of those, while the rest are either in full implementation or still in the planning stage, like the BFA.

"We have done a few headquarters and, having investigated the situation here with both the president (Larry Mussenden) and general secretary of the BFA (David Sabir), it has become quite clear to me that the priority - having toured most of the Island - is not physical infrastructure at all.

"They (the BFA) are a victim of their own success. They need to have more space.

"Football needs more space to do a better job in administering the game and so what we have agreed is that the priority is to establish a BFA office which belongs to the BFA."

President Mussenden said ideally the BFA wanted to be in Hamilton and a search was now underway, although more than $400,000 will be necessary to see any deal through.

Said Look Loy: "In Bermuda one can't buy or build very much for $400,000 so we are in the process of discussing how we are going to amplify this first instalment or investment by FIFA."

Look Loy is expected to return to the Island next month to resume discussions with officials from the Government's Ministry of Sport following a get together yesterday.

"As a result of the meeting we had this morning at the Ministry of Sport, it was agreed that I will return in February at a date when the Minister (Randy Horton) is in the country," Look Loy said.

"We will continue this discussion and bring it to a conclusion as quickly as possible."