forward the date of the forthcoming Copa Carib -- a move that led to Bermuda pulling out of the tournament.

Bermuda were due to play St Kitts, the Dominican Republic and hosts Antigua at the beginning of March in the qualifying round of the biennial competition.

However, they were informed last week that the dates had been changed because the Antiguans had forgotten that the touring South African cricket team were due to play the West Indies.

The two sports share the same ground and an agreement between the two bodies decrees that the ground be given over at least a month before the start of any cricket tournament. As a result the date for the qualifying matches was brought forward. BFA general secretary David Sabir said this was unacceptable and Bermuda pulled out but not before criticising the Antiguans and the Caribbean Football Union -- the region's organising body.

However, CFU general secretary Harold Taylor, while accepting Bermuda's stance, said he had no choice but to sanction the date change.

"We had to change the dates of the tournament because FIFA (world football's governing body) is trying to organise a calendar for football to ensure that as far as possible small countries like those in the Caribbean are able to get the players for matches at certain periods,'' he said.

"If we know this is happening here, this is happening there, then we can get the spaces in between. As a result of that they asked us to play the tournament finals in May. So I brought forward the finals to May because of FIFA's request.'' Continued on page 21 Copa Carib dates fiasco Continued from page 19 "Having done that we then had to go back to the countries taking part in the preliminary competition and put new dates to them in order to finish in April so they would have time before the finals in May to organise themselves for travelling and so on.'' It was only later that the Antiguans made their discovery, said Taylor.

"They advised us of dates they could play without looking very closely at the cricket they have on when South Africa comes,'' he said.

"They then found they could not play the dates of March 7, 9 and 11 because of international cricket. Therefore they brought the dates forward because they could not go back.

"It was brought forward to February 28. They had to bring it forward by a week or so. They wanted to play in May which I couldn't agree to because it would give teams just over a week between when they finished and when they were to play in the finals of the competition. That didn't make sense so I altered it to start on February 28. However, Bermuda said that would not suit them.'' Taylor said organising competitions in the Caribbean was at times a logistical nightmare.

"I am not happy when anyone pulls out but I understand their (Bermuda's) problem. That is a problem we have in the region with things such as air transport,'' he said.

"It is always very difficult for people in the region. A lot of people feel it is easy to go from Dominica to Trinidad. But it is very difficult, sometimes teams have to come on three and four flights. Just the other day I had a team coming from the Dominican Republic to Barbados and they had to come on three different flights to reach their destination.

"I will never be happy with anybody pulling out of a tournament. We are here to play football, but this time I understand.''