Sports Minister Randy Horton says Bermuda Football Association (BFA) owe no monies for training and the National Sports Centre (NSC) - and have not done so since March.

However, he is adamant that football's governing body must comply with paying a percentage of gate receipts for international games held at the complex.

Responding to detailed charges by the BFA about its plight regarding use of the NSC, the minister termed the BFA's banning from the NSC "a misunderstanding" and declared that training at the stadium would be "free, but limited" for all sports - except athletics.

The latter, he noted, required special dispensation.

Following his second Press statement on the matter in two days, Horton told The Royal Gazette that at a meeting with BFA officials on March 27 this year, he informed them of the "free, but limited" regulation for training at NSC.

However, he said, the BFA wanted to use the NSC four days a week for about ten months of the year - a request that was untenable.

"We had a meeting in March and from that time on I said that all training would be free, but limited. It was a significant amount of time that they wanted and limited also meant we had to take into consideration use by other sports organisations."

Horton said he hoped Government and the BFA could reach an agreement which fell between the terms of the NSC Training Policy and the BFA's wishes. The NSC Training Policy states that "a team preparing for a games event will be allowed to use the Centre for training four weeks prior to competition".

Horton also stressed that the BFA's training debt of $41,151.50 became null and void "with immediate effect" in March after the decision to make all training free. He pointed out that the concern about BFA debts therefore related only to $40,873.90 owing from revenue-earning events.

"We are not asking about those (training bills). We are just asking about the bill for the event functions. We feel they should be paying a part of their expenses.

"At the meeting, they said they wanted to pay no fees for international games and I didn't agree with that. There's still a stalemate on that. I spoke with the president (Larry Mussenden) this afternoon (yesterday) and we're going to have a meeting tomorrow (today) and look at the whole issue.

"Presently it's at 15 (percent of gate receipts) but it could possibly be negotiated."

On the question of the BFA being banned from the Frog Lane premises, the minister said this could not be true as only he or the trustees had authority to effect this.

He explained that "the intent" of correspondence to the BFA from Director of Youth & Sport Anthony Roberts "was just to get them (BFA) to try and make some effort to pay something back" and the letter simply indicated that "a recommendation" to ban them had been made.

"A recommendation is not a final decree. I appreciate there could have been some initial misunderstanding of the interpretation of the letter," acknowledged Horton.

At another meeting, following the receipt of Roberts' letter, Horton said he told the BFA they were not banned and that the matches against Canadian team, Hamilton Thunder, could proceed. However, he said he was unaware that the Bermuda Select team which opposed the Canadians were not able to train at the NSC.

Regarding track athletes' usage of the stadium, the sports chief said such persons will continue to receive special consideration regarding their training needs.

"There's no other place in Bermuda where one can train for track. Right now, track and field already have use of the NSC for training purposes year-round."