BERMUDA Football Association officials are, if nothing else, realistic.

Their assessment of the national team's chances in the upcoming World Cup qualifying tournament was brutally frank.

In essence, the message they left with journalists at a news conference on Wednesday of this week was: ‘We're not prepared, we're not good enough, we can't compete, so we don't expect to win.'

Given the cynicism which has surrounded the national football team in recent years, that differs little from what one would expect to hear from the average fan.

But is it really what we wanted to hear from the game's governing body?

Whatever happened to that bulldog, fighting spirit?

There's a very fine line between realism and defeatism and on this occasion, sad to say, it appears the BFA might have overstepped the mark.

It is, of course, absolutely true that any venture into the international arena has to be viewed as a learning experience.

From a footballing standpoint over the last few years, there's been precious little to cheer about and even less to lift national pride.

What we continually hear from those who run the game is that we're in a developmental stage and the fruits of labour won't be realised for some years down the road.

To be fair to the current administration, they quickly realised that to get success from a senior national team meant building a solid foundation at youth level, and that's where the emphasis has been placed. Indeed, the long-term goal of the BFA is for Bermuda to be as competitive in the World Cup as any other country our size.

But, unfortunately, that's a tale we've been hearing from one administration after another for as long as most football fans can remember.

We always seem to be at a developmental stage and we never quite seem to make the next step.

Emphasis on youth often seems to come at the expense of senior commitments, where, after all, results matter most.

Those who have ‘developed' in the youth programme suddenly seem to disappear or be discarded once they grow out of their teens.

Club football becomes the priority, with little incentive and, as such, little ambition to succeed at international level.

It's the kind of mentality that also exists in cricket. Domestic success overrides everything else.

With the World Cup - playing in which should be the pinnacle of any footballer's career - just the around the corner, everything the BFA does should be geared towards ensuring our best players are given the absolutely best chance of succeeding.

No, we're not going to win, and no, we're not going to reach the same dizzy heights as the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica.

But there's no earthly reason why we can't strive to be one of the best sides in the region.

As BFA vice president Chris Furbert pointed out this week, the raw talent we have at our disposal is enormous.

Victory over sides such as Mexico, USA, Canada and Jamaica, might still be some way off, but it's ludicrous to think that Bermuda's world ranking is now below that of teams such as Antigua, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St.Vincent. When did they ever produce players the calibre of Shaun Goater or Kyle Lightbourne?

Ten years ago in 1993, FIFA ranked Bermuda 78th in the world. Today, we're a sorry 181st. The slide has been unrelenting. At some point - and now would be as good a time as any - we have to reverse the trend.

Ahead of World Cup qualifying, it would appear the BFA are being cautious not to raise expectations.

But what they're in danger of doing is convincing the players and the rest of the country that we're not good enough.

And that's simply not true.