League winners Devonshire Cougars may have waived their right to enter the top regional club tournament, but Concacaf Champions Cup football still appears set to come to Bermuda next month.

Khano Smith's Major League Soccer side New England Revolution are now almost certain to stage their quarter-final first leg tie against Costa Rica's LD Alajuelense here on February 22, a date which coincides with their now traditional pre-season tour of the Island.

Switching the game from Boston will not only give Smith the chance to showcase his talents in front of a partisan crowd but will also bring television cameras to the Island, as all Champions Cup ties are being shown on Fox networks across the region.

Steve Nicol's men were originally expected to arrive here on February 17 for some warm-weather training and pre-season friendlies against the Bermuda national team and possibly another MLS team or other South American opposition ? a plan that is now almost certain to alter following the Champions Cup draw.

Boston will still be in the throes of deep winter mid-February, hence the need for both the pre-season camp here and now switching the cup tie.

Two years ago when faced with the same opposition, winners of the regional tournament in 2004, the Revolution chose to play both legs in the Central American country and were duly dumped out of the competition.

This year they appear to have chosen instead to play the fixture here, almost certainly at the National Stadium, before the second leg on March 8 in Costa Rica, a nation they were due to visit anyway on their extended pre-season programme.

The Revolution are refusing to confirm the fixture officially, although the Costa Rican club have made the decision public.

The game will come under the auspices of the Bermuda Football Association, although general secretary David Sabir yesterday confirmed the BFA have, as yet, had no official approach to sanction the match.

But understands the Revolution are expected to fly in as early as the first week of next month and would play as many as two or three warm up matches against the national side, a local club side and a further touring team, possibly a Caribbean national or select side or another US outfit ahead of the tie.

An official announcement is expected from the MLS Cup losing finalists next week and the tour's fixtures should be published by the end of the month.

A game against the national team is one of the few certainties of the trip, something coach Kyle Lightbourne has already welcomed.

Last year's tour of the Island proved a roaring success, despite the low turn out for matches between the MLS team and both a national team and a league select XI.

The Revolution clearly benefited, embarking on a record-breaking season and clinching the Eastern Conference ? only to fall to the Los Angeles Galazy 1-0 in the season finale ? while then Dandy Town striker Smith was picked up by Nicol after scoring for the national side and before becoming a useful member of the Revs squad, scoring vital and spectacular goals and doing enough to earn a second season stateside.