THE international sporting arena can be a merciless place at times, a fact Bermuda’s national football team would have been all too aware of in the aftermath of their 5-0 demolition by Haiti in the Digicel Cup playoffs over two legs in Trinidad.It is an arena that has, from the outset, to be given the utmost respect. To be successful in it requires talent first and foremost, but more importantly, it requires organisation as well as unrelenting hard work and sacrifice. Without a combination of the two, you are merely setting yourself up for disappointment.

Despite the obvious limitations in terms of size, Bermuda continues to generate — and celebrate — talent.

Much of this talent, in terms of the national sports at least, has tended to succeed in spite of, rather than because of, the system.

Our cricketers, lest we forget, pulled off arguably the most profound sporting triumph in the island’s history with only limited financial backing — having been fed by a penniless and severely-flawed club system where mediocrity is the rule rather than the exception.

The football team made it to the brink of the Digicel Cup finals having played not one friendly international in the lead up to, or in between, the competition’s three phases.

They trained when they could but never regularly. They flew down to Trinidad for their make-or-break Cup games only 48 hours before the first match. Inevitably almost, the team were delayed, arriving tired and dispirited and without anywhere convenient to train. The rest is history.

Haiti, by contrast, (who are, remember, one of the world’s poorest nations) were in Trinidad almost ten days beforehand; training, acclimatising, playing practice matches.

It was rigorous, it was thorough and above all it was professional. It was what you would expect from an international team with serious aspirations of doing well.

They didn’t crush Bermuda because they were overwhelmingly more talented. They beat them because they showed the occasion greater respect.

For a powerhouse of Caribbean football, their failure to qualify directly for the finals was not just an inconvenience, it was deemed a national disgrace.

The response was drastic and immediate: their Brazilian coach lost his job and the Haitian government threw thousands of dollars at the football association with the instruction to move heaven and earth to ensure qualification.

The difference in preparation between the two sides was alarmingly evident within five minutes of the opening whistle on Sunday night.

Though they arguably should have scored more goals over the two legs, in general Haiti looked slick, confident and penetrative, while Bermuda played as if keeping hold of the ball was somehow forbidden under the rules.

Even the overseas pros such as John Barry Nusum and Khano Smith looked totally confused and frustrated as they struggled to fit into a system that was rusty to the core from under-use.

Two-nil down after the first game and with a mountain to climb, UK-based midfielder Damon Ming could not resist stating publicly what many of us were already thinking.

“The frustrating thing is that there’s a lot of talented players in this squad, but without the proper equipment and the proper preparation we’re always going to stand still in terms of our development as a team,” he said.

“All the players feel that way and what it comes down to is the administration. I have always felt that the administration does not do enough to back the team and give us the conditions we need to perform at our best.

“They don’t seem to have the best interests of the team or Bermuda football at heart. This has got to change otherwise we are never going to go anywhere and we’re not going to do ourselves justice.

“What’s happening at the moment is a shame because some real talent is being wasted.”

He’s absolutely right of course. It’s a problem that has affected most local sports at one time or another, but is probably more true with football than anywhere else.

Clearly we need a dose of realism here. Bermuda’s footballers are not good enough for World Cup qualification or anything like that.

But they really ought to be one of the better sides in the Caribbean. The fact, therefore, that they have never once progressed to the finals of the competition is totally unacceptable and an indictment not only on the players or the coaching staff, but more particularly on the game’s governing body.

The Bermuda Football Association will moan over the next few days about their limited finances. They’ll boast of their ambitious plans for the future of the local game and point to the millions of public dollars that they may or may not get next year as evidence of this.

Now this is all very commendable and timely. But it won’t make the public or our neglected national team feel any better about their Cup exit.

And what precisely have BFA president Larry Mussenden and his cohorts been doing since he took over in August of 2001? Why has it taken five and a half years to come up with a comprehensive plan? Though he was recently dropped as Attorney General and removed from his position as the PLP’s main man in the Senate, Mussenden remains a politician through and through.

And as we all know, politicians are infinitely happier talking about what they’re going to do rather than what they’ve actually achieved and it remains to be seen whether he can truly deliver on this long-awaited vision of his.

If not we will continue to stand still in footballing terms and one wonders if it is even worth entering these tournaments if we continue to go into them half-baked.

As Ming said, it’s an awful waste of a group of players with some genuinely respectable talent.

It’s time the BFA started giving the international arena the respect it deserves.