Football boss Larry Mussenden is advocating that one form of games be the financial lifeline of another.

The president of Bermuda Football Association (BFA) says Government should consider taxing the Island's gaming machines to bolster the National Sports Centre's (NSC) coffers and alleviate the issue of cash-strapped sporting organisations paying to use the facility.

Going so far as to declare he does not think the owners of these gambling devices would "have too much of any objection about money being diverted to a worthy cause like supporting our national sports programmes", Mussenden noted the time has come for alternate fund-raising options to be considered for the Sports Centre.

"We have a number of gaming machines throughout the country and I think Government should investigate licensing these machines and charging a registration fee and a licence fee for having them. They should also tax the profits - or a percentage of the profits - on those machines.

"If we must have them in this country then certainly some of the proceeds from the machines should go towards some positive activity and that could be the Sports Centre.

"I don't think anybody would have a problem with that. I think people would be quite pleased," he said.

As far as he was aware, said Mussenden, there were currently no taxes on gaming machines.

The football head also called for accommodation to be built at the Frog Lane complex as "a matter of priority ahead of some of the other facilities that they are planning on building".

"There is some loose plan for that (accommodation) but I don't know when," he said, adding that dormitories could be used not only to house visiting teams but for Bermudian teams preparing for important national or international matches.