BERMUDA'S national football team will travel to England in just over a week for an intense training camp at Premiership club Fulham. And then they will take on Chelsea reserves before flying home.

Technical director of the Bermuda Football Association, Derek Broadley, has wasted no time since taking up the job earlier this year to get more top level competition for the national team who will face a very tough two-leg encounter with Trinidad in June in World Cup qualifying.

"The sole purpose for this special training tour is to assist our team in their preparation for their qualifying matches against Trinidad," said Broadley yesterday.

"Our team will undergo an intense, high level of training that will include fitness, agility and match performance like no other. The final day will be one to remember for years to come when the national team will play Chelsea reserves of the Premier League.

"At the moment 25 players are training with the national team, as they look to improve their game overall. The players and coaches have now put the (World Cup qualifying) Cayman Islands victory behind them and are now solely concentrating on Trinidad," added Broadley.

Chelsea's reserves could include some of their first team players as well as players from their youth set-up.

This week Manchester City managed to beat Chelsea 3-1 to win their their first FA Youth Cup since 1986 (4-2 aggregate) thanks to the eye-catching talents of a Slovakian winger.

Broadley said that Bermuda's squad will be reduced to 18 players before their departure date on Sunday, April 27. And a number of those players may come from the Bermuda Hogges who begin their pro season this weekend when they travel to the Charlotte Eagles in the USL (Division II).

The technical director, who headed up Crystal Palace's youth academy before moving to the Reading Rage organisation in the US, said that he has met with representatives from the Hogges. "It is important that we work with the Hogges ¿ this is a great opportunity for our players."

Broadley has good contacts at Fulham and he said this made everything go smoothly. "I have spoken to a few former colleagues of mine and told them what we needed to do and requested that they help us out at this time. Vic Bettinelli was the key component at Fulham. He is now the youth academy goalkeepering coach at Fulham as well as the assistant youth coach.

"What I would like to happen is for our own staff to take the training but in Vic's case I would certainly like for him to help our goalkeepers."

Broadley said that although they will not play Fulham, the facilities would definitely come in handy.

And those facilities also come with technical equipment so that the stats of Bermuda's players can be measured. "It is a way to get some stats against some quality opposition. I am hoping to use some of the facilities at Fulham that will give us those stats ¿ how far they run, how many times they give away the ball, how many passes they make. It is a Pro Zone type facility," he said.

Broadley will be accompanied by head coach Keith Tucker and assistant coach Kenny Thompson. The team will return on May 2.