North Village are going Dutch. Well their youngsters are that is.

The Red Devils have flown two teams of teenage footballers to Europe to take part in a series of games against top class opposition.

Village's Under-13s and Under-15s will play in nine matches against amateur teams from the Netherlands. While there they will also take in a top flight professional match as well as make excursions to Germany and Belgium.

"The main reason is really to expose our players to a higher level of competition than they are normally accustomed to," said coach Kenny Thompson. "Many times in Bermuda we get caught up in thinking our level is acceptable outside of (the Island). We tend not to do the extra things and make the commitment necessary to play at a very high level.

"The tour will enable these players to see for themselves what the level is like and then more demands can be made of them and they will make more demands of themselves to reach a higher level."

Thompson said it should be an eye-opener for many of those making the trip.

"Some players have been before but for many of them it will be a brand new experience," he said. "They are looking forward to playing in the matches and looking forward to seeing top matches. We are actually going to see Ajax versus Feyenoord on Sunday up in Rotterdam.

"They will be able to play matches themselves against quality opponents, be able to watch top level matches and Europe is a football minded culture, everything is football. You travel throughout the country and you see evidence of football, similar to the US with baseball."

The teams will play games almost every other day, although some will be back to back. They return on September 2.

"It's more than just a football experience," said Thompson. "We want them to experience various cultures different from this side of the world. It is two-fold."

The coach said a lot of effort had gone into sending the children abroad.

"Everyone has worked hard, especially the parents and the players. They have put together a fundraising committee made up of parents and they have worked extremely hard to pull this off. As you can imagine it costs quite a bit of money.

"They have worked very hard in fundraising, for example during the Under-17s World Cup qualifiers the players were out there selling food to the spectators.

"Various fundraisers like that have contributed to making this a reality."