Local soccer fans with fond memories of the exciting International Youth Under-17 tournament held at the National Sports Centre last year will welcome the news announced yesterday by Bermuda Football Association.

A similar event has been confirmed for the same venue between July 21-26.

BFA president Larry Mussenden, during a press conference at the Centre, revealed that Bermuda would once again host the tournament which will also include visiting national teams from Jamaica, Barbados and Canada.

All games will be played in the evening, commencing at 7 o'clock and 9 o'clock.

The tournament actually is billed as a warm-up for Bermuda's participation in the International Youth Under-17 World Championships qualifying round later this year.

"This tournament will allow our Under-17 national team to have some exposure to other CONCACAF teams like those in Canada, Barbados and Jamaica.

"It will be an excellent opportunity for our players because at some point later on in the qualifying rounds for the Under-17 Youth Championships they may come up against these teams all the way to the finals in Finland in 2003,'' said Mussenden.

"It's a fantastic opportunity. We have had Under-17 International Youth tournaments before, we have concentrated on the youth, that's the mandate of the BFA and it's also an exciting championship to be held in Bermuda.

"Last year we hosted the qualifying rounds for the age group, Bermuda was in position to challenge but lost out in the final against Jamaica.

"That was a qualifying round, this tournament here is being used as preparation for that qualifying round which will be held in October and Bermuda is looking to host that here again. Hopefully, we would be better prepared to advance to the next round."'

The BFA chief urged the entire community to rally behind the teams, both the local boys and the visitors, and support the tournament in the same high numbers as they did a year ago.

Double-headers are slated for Sunday, July 21, Monday, July 22, Wednesday, July 24 with the final set for Friday, July 26.