one of their preliminary round opponents has been omitted, it has been disclosed.

The Bermuda Football Association have received confirmation that the competition in the Cayman Islands will now start on May 6 instead of, as previously planned, April 22.

It was news welcomed by the BFA and Bermuda's technical director Clyde Best.

They had been dreading going to the event without having the opportunity of playing any major warm-up matches.

"Yes, it gives us more time to prepare,'' said Best yesterday. "All of the time we get now to practice is precious to us. We've been training since early in January and we are still attempting to find some strong teams to play against as a build-up.

BFA general secretary David Sabir agreed, saying that serious attempts were still being made to arrange some matches for the national squad against decent opponents.

"We remain optimistic that something positive in this regard will come up, either a tour coming in or one abroad. It's simply a must for the team to have some intensive match practice going into a tough competition like the one coming up,'' said Sabir. Communication from the Caribbean Football Union indicated that the matches in Bermuda's Group Six will take place on May 6, 8 and 10 but the exact scheduled has not yet been confirmed.

And there was no information about the absence of the fourth country in the original group, Turks and Caicos Islands. The only three countries mentioned in recent correspondence were host Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Cuba.

The quarter-finals format is, however, believed to be unchanged with the winners of Groups 3, 5 and 6 (Bermuda's group) playing in Trinidad and Tobago and Groups 1, 2 and 4 competing in Jamaica.

Among the prominent countries who could reach that stage are Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, and Puerto Rico.