AS World Cup euphoria subsides, it's perhaps time for local football to take a long, hard look at where it goes from here.

No doubt the majority of those who packed the National Sports Centre last Sunday and many more who couldn't attend the match against El Salvador were immensely proud of the effort put in by coach Kenny Thompson and his players, and that was reflected in the support shown.

But already this week, in some quarters, the daggers have come out. Not everybody, it seems, was particularly impressed.

In letters to Sports Mailbox we've seen complaints that the team ‘under-achieved', the players were ‘too old' and one victory over the lowest country in the FIFA rankings - Montserrat - hardly constitutes a successful World Cup campaign.

It's worth taking a look at some of those criticisms.

Firstly, regarding the players' ages. Surely, during the World Cup - the granddaddy of all soccer tournaments - age doesn't matter one iota. The object is to pick the best team possible, and if all of the best players happen to be over 30, then so what?

It could be argued that had the two elder statesmen of Bermuda soccer - Shaun Goater and Kyle Lightbourne - been fit to play last Sunday, the outcome might have been much different. Certainly, even a half-fit Goater was able make his presence felt in the previous week's first leg match in San Salvador.

Critics of the current team need to remember, this wasn't a developmental squad, Bermuda wasn't preparing for the future - this was the future! All that mattered was getting a positive result, and by fielding our most experienced eleven, we came mighty close.

On team selection, Thompson shouldn't be faulted.

Criticism of the coach's recent international record also needs to be put into perspective.

Following an abysmal performance against Barbados over the Christmas holiday, there was a marked improvement in almost every game.

Yes, the team were beaten comprehensively in Panama and twice in Nicaragua as well as at home by a teenage Manchester City side. But they also scored a couple of good wins at home against Nicaragua and in between crushed Montserrat 20-0 on aggregate - which remains the biggest World Cup victory recorded anywhere so far in the 2006 qualifiers.

Apart from the Monsterrat games, Thompson was experimenting with various players, and rightly so, thus often rendering the final result meaningless.

All that mattered in the end was how Bermuda performed against El Salvador. And ultimately, a 4-3 defeat on aggregate is a result of which nobody should be ashamed.

The detractors have pointed out that this was a poor Salvadorean side, made up primarily of under-23 players. The latter might be true, but let's not forget every single one of those players is a professional.

And it was these same players who just two years ago lifted the CAC Championships by defeating Mexico in the final.

They might be young but they still represent, by and large, the best that El Salvador has to offer in a country of six million-plus that sports two all-professional divisions and gives not a hoot for any game but soccer.

All that said, any post-mortem on Bermuda's World Cup campaign would have to reveal that there remain plenty off issues which need to be resolved as the BFA attempt to move forward.

Now that the campaign is over, development does become the key word. And it's essential that all of various national youth squads disbanded following the dispute over training facilities are reinstated as soon as possible.

Already the Under-20s are up and running again and training at Bermuda College. And it's important that the Under-15s and Under-17s are quickly reassembled.

While Thompson and the BFA have argued that all of their national sides should be able to train at the National Sports Centre, unfortunately that's an argument they're never going to win, nor gain a lot of support for.

The NSC wasn't built exclusively for soccer, and certainly not as a training facility. Ideally, all national squads would love to train regularly on surfaces such as that provided at the NSC, but it doesn't happen in other small countries, and realistically we can't expect it to happen here - particularly during the summer when our other ‘national sport', cricket, should take priority.

So Thompson and the BFA will have to make do with whatever training grounds they can find and on that issue will likely need to work more closely with their affiliates.

PHC's new stadium is due to open later this year and with what promises to be a good pitch and floodlights, the Warwick club might be able to fill a huge void.

As for the issue of financial support, which has been a hot topic during the recent campaign, again the BFA need to look carefully at innovative ways of boosting the kitty.

Too often too much is expected of the corporate sector. The BFA, and any other governing body for that matter, should feel privileged to receive funds from local or exempt businesses, but they can't expect hand-outs on demand.

Government, on the other had, is a different kettle of fish. It was this Government that declared soccer and cricket as national sports, and therefore at the very least they have a moral obligation to finance those sports as best they can.

But again, tax payers' hard-earned cash isn't going to be distributed without complete accountability.

Whatever the road ahead for local football, there's an overwhelming need for all parties to work in tandem. The petty squabbles which punctuated this World Cup campaign might not have had a direct bearing on the final outcome, but they certainly didn't help the cause - which was to ensure that Bermuda's national squad be given the absolute best possible chance of success.

As Thompson and his various squads regroup that, in essence, has to remain the overriding goal.