The booming success of the Women's World Cup in the US could provide a springboard for better times in women's soccer in Bermuda.

That's the hope of Delroy O'Brien, the man in charge of the development of the women's game on the Island -- but he said the women's football fraternity had to be prepared to ring the changes.

O'Brien attended the World Cup final in Pasadena last weekend and a symposium on women's football staged by FIFA, the sport's world governing body, in Los Angeles last week.

And he has come back determined to put into practice the many ideas he heard on how to get more women playing soccer.

There have been several false dawns for women's soccer in Bermuda. It started out in the Sixties when a group started playing at Bernard Park.

The game died out, was resurrected in the Seventies, but again enthusiasm tapered off and the games stopped being played.

In the Eighties, the game sprang up again and clubs gained company sponsorships and came under the BFA banner for the first time.

There are currently 185 registered female players in Bermuda with five clubs -- PHC, Wolves Girls, Rude Girls, BAA and Prospect.

O'Brien believed that number could be much higher, if the clubs were willing to make major structural changes.

Per Ravn Omdal, chairman of the FIFA Committee for Women's Football, told O'Brien and other delegates in Los Angeles that teams of five or seven instead of 11 were the way forward.

O'Brien supported the notion and wanted to get agreement from women's clubs to implement it.

"We have to meet with the coaches and players and get their feelings on what is the most feasible mode of play,'' said O'Brien. "We'll see if we can encourage them to go for smaller-sided games, although this is a major step away from what we have now.'' The sport's major stumbling block in the past had been a "numbers problem'', added O'Brien, but reducing the number needed to make up a team would help to solve it.

Other ideas he brought home from Los Angeles were changing the emphasis of the game from serious competition to fun, and encouraging more women into administrative posts, coaching and refereeing as well as playing.

O'Brien added that this format had fuelled the impressive growth of the game in the US and China -- the nations which contested the World Cup final.

Around 40 million women play football worldwide. FIFA believe the potential for growth is enormous and that "the future of football is feminine''.

The World Cup, which attracted bumper crowds all over the US, had clearly encouraged and impressed O'Brien.

"The World Cup has done so much to bring women's football to prominence,'' he said. "The ball skills and tactics, defensive and offensive play were of a very high standard and we may now see more money put into the sport because of that.'' Game set to boom: A knock-on effect from the successful World Cup in the US could make women's soccer a more common sight in Bermuda next winter, organisers are hoping.