YOUNG national team footballer Kris Frick was slapped with a huge international ban by the Bermuda Football Association after he walked out on his teammates during the Digicel Caribbean Cup in the Cayman Islands last week.

Frick, 19, was hit with a five-year international ban and a two-year domestic ban.

His walkout during the tournament came only a year after he did something similar ¿ walking out in disgust on Bermuda's Under-20 national squad shortly before the team's departure for the World Cup qualifiers also staged in the Cayman Islands.

Last week he walked out because he was put on the bench. Last year it was because he was overlooked for the captaincy.

This latest outburst of petulance was the final straw for the BFA's executive committee who met Wednesday night and imposed the severe bans after reading the reports from the team's officials who were with the Bermuda team at the Caribbean Cup.

After Bermuda were badly beaten by Antigua 4-0 in the opening match last week, Frick decided to abandon the team right before the match against St. Martin after being informed that he would start on the bench. Bermuda handily won that match but played to a scoreless draw in their final game against hosts Cayman and thus went out at the first hurdle of the competition. Now their next scheduled full international will not be for another two years although there will be friendly matches on the schedule.

Before the BFA executive committee met on Wednesday, technical director Derek Broadley said that he, as well as a number of players and coaches, had tried to persuade Frick to come back to the team while in the Caymans. But to no avail.

Broadley said yesterday that he has worked with scores of young players from his time as Academy Director of Crystal Palace in England and also with the Reading Rage in the US and that young people often make mistakes.

"What Kris did by walking out on his teammates was a cardinal sin. But it can be repaired ¿ but it will be up to him to repair the damage," said the technical director.

BFA president Larry Mussendem said that what Frick did was "desert the team and his fellow players".

Mussendem said: "While Mr. Frick expected another player to sit on the bench for him he was not prepared to sit on the bench for another player. You have to have mutual respect among all the players and no one player is above any other. We trust that Mr. Frick will take the time to analyse what he has done and figure out a way forward for himself."

The BFA boss said: "The executive looked at this very seriously and we considered the reports from the team officials and also took note of all the efforts that were done with Kris and all the efforts to keep him with the team."

And the executive committee were certainly not happy when the player refused to get dressed for the match and "even more seriously to have left the team and to have left the country while representing Bermuda".

Mussendem said: "That was very serious. It is a huge honour to represent Bermuda and he also denied another player the opportunity of being on the list to travel (to the Cayman Islands).

"Additionally he deserted the team and his fellow players. We think this is an appropriate penalty and we want to encourage people not just in football but all sports, that when you are representing your country it is an honour and privilege and not to be taken lightly."

Mussendem also said Frick may be treated warily by future coaches.

"Any future coaches, after the ban is no longer in place, will perhaps remember this and ask 'is this a person I can rely on or if he doesn't get his way will he back out of it?' That will always be hanging over his head unless he does a lot to turn himself around," the BFA president added.

Former West Ham great Clyde Best, a Mid-Ocean News columnist, said yesterday that players cannot simply walk out on a team just because they are put on the bench.

Best said: "I do not know all the ins and outs of what happened down there (in the Cayman Islands) but only from what I have read in the newspapers. If what I read in the newspapers is correct then he is probably lucky he only got a five-year ban (internationally) because anywhere else in the world he probably would not have ever played for his country again ¿ that would have been it.

"You can't do that sort of stuff. You are not bigger than the game and you have to respect it. Even if you think you are a better player than someone else you have to suck it up and then go out and prove what you can do when given your chance.

"I feel sorry for him in a sense ¿ but no one is bigger than the game. You have a wonderful opportunity to represent your country and you can't walk out. It didn't make sense for him to go in the first place if he was going to act like that. Any player who has aspirations of going as far as he can in this game does not do what he did ¿ no one is going to give you anything in this life and you have to fight for it. You are not going agree with everything that happens.

"You have to take your chance when you get it and play well and let the coach know that he made a mistake by not putting you in the starting line-up in the first place. That is how you do it (respond to being put on the bench) ¿ not by walking out. There is no place for that."