THERE are so many disturbing aspects of the current stand-off between Bermuda Football Association and Government's Ministry of Sport that it's difficult to determine just who is being honest and who is not.

At the very least, somebody, it would appear, has been rather economical with the truth.

But perhaps the most disturbing chapter of the entire saga is that the row had to involve Shaun Goater and had to explode on the very week that he launched his inaugural Grassroots Festival with the Manchester City Youth Academy players and staff whom he had persuaded to give their time freely while in Bermuda.

It goes without saying that nobody has done more in recent years to put Bermuda football in the global limelight than Goater. His three goals against Manchester United this season alone will be forever etched in the memory of City fans and hundreds of thousands of supporters elsewhere.

How must he now feel, having returned home to what should have been a hero's welcome, to be greeted by a torrent of claims and counter claims between those who supposedly govern our national sport?

Diplomatic as ever, Shaun played down the BFA's withdrawal of an official national Under-17 team on the eve of their scheduled match against the Man City youngsters.

A game involving almost all of the same players would go ahead regardless, and that was enough to maintain the ear-to-ear grin which sometimes appears to be a permanent feature of the Goater face.

But underneath it all he must have been angry and embarrassed.

The whole idea of the festival, months in the planning, was to showcase the very best of Bermuda's young talent, to give them an opportunity to play against one of the top youth sides in Britain, and to enhance their own chances of following in his footsteps.

Fortunately, they still got that chance. But only after some last-minute juggling, and only after all the media and public attention had been diverted from the festival onto the administrators and politicians.

What of the row itself?

It's difficult to know what to make of it because it's difficult to know who to believe - both sides offering completely contrasting stories.

On the face of it, the BFA, aside from withdrawing their Under-17 team at the eleventh hour in a most untimely fashion, have really done nothing of which they should be ashamed.

Most sports observers would probably agree that the $40,000 bill with which they have been presented by Government for use of the National Sports Centre is unfair.

Horton yesterday claimed that bill was for funds owing from revenue-earning events and not national team training as had originally been alleged, but BFA general secretary David Sabir might beg to differ.

And while Horton has declared that the BFA were not banned from using the Frog Lane facility nor were they billed for training, documents produced by the governing body seem to paint another picture.

Government ministers are the first to scamper down to the airport, entourage in tow, whenever any of our sporting stars excel overseas, never missing an opportunity to score easy political points.

While Horton, as a former professional soccer player, might be an exception - indeed he's been supportive of a variety of sports since taking office - for the most part the rest couldn't give a hoot.

Somehow they manage to find money in the budget for a fancy fleet of cars and a wad of first-class air tickets but apparently can't scrape up enough cash to maintain our only national sports centre which has been a quarter of a century in the making and still isn't anywhere near complete.

How can Government with one hand offer the game they so proudly declared a ‘national sport' an annual grant and, with the other hand, take it away.

And that's exactly what they are doing, regardless of the Minister's contention that national teams can train free of charge for a four-week period at the NSC prior to international competition.

If such a policy exists - and the first this newspaper heard of it was late this week - then who's hair-brained scheme was it anyway.

A national team can't possibly prepare adequately if there are restrictions on the amount of time they can train. For any programme to be successful at international level, it has to be continual.

If any of our national football teams are to enjoy success overseas they need to be allowed to train year round at the best facilities we have without the threat of a huge bill landing on the BFA's doorstep every couple of months.

It might also be asked whether such bills are being forwarded to other local governing bodies.

Bermuda Track and Field Association, for example, use the NSC almost every day of the week and hold meets most weekends. If they were subject to the same policy, their costs would run into hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Given the current financial state of the BTFA, that obviously isn't the case.

Any athlete can visit the Sports Centre track at any time and train either as an individual or within a group - and many do - but are not charged for the privilege.

So why have the BFA been singled out?

The Sports Centre has been fraught with controversy ever since the first plans were drawn up. Sadly, now that it's available to our leading athletes, nothing much has changed.

Providing use of it is properly supervised and the playing surfaces maintained to a standard which one would expect of a national facility, then it should certainly be open to our best soccer and cricket players, and others who aspire to international success, free of charge.

And if Government can't find the cash to maintain it, as has been proposed many times previously, they should think again about a national lottery.