Bermuda could see funding from world soccer's governing body blocked after associations in the Caribbean Football Union were condemned for the way they use cash hand-outs.

Jack Warner, president of CONCACAF, the regional arm of FIFA, said he would ask the organisation to stop and review the US$250,000 given annually to each national association in the Caribbean to ensure the funds were being used properly.

Warner said that over the last four years, nearly all of the national associations in the Caribbean Football Union, of which Bermuda is a member, had nothing to show, except for overseas tours, for the quadrennial US$1 million outlay announced by FIFA president Joseph Blatter in 1998.

"I will ask FIFA to hold back the funding and we will have to teach the Caribbean associations how to invest and use the money wisely," Warner said, while speaking on the subject of the socio-economic impact of sport on the region to a group of Caribbean businessmen at the Venture Capital Incentive Programme in Barbados.

"The regional associations spend little on development which is the cornerstone of football success. The time has come for us in FIFA to provide rigid guidelines for the disbursement of the FIFA grant."

Warner said there was enormous economic potential for sport in the region but there needed to be involvement in development of the product.

"Just as oil companies journey into the deepest forest to search for crude oil and subsequently refine it into high quality products, so too we must encourage investment in the search and development of sporting talent," he said. "Moreover, investors must provide the business skills that are now so critical to the development of sport in the modern era.

"Surely sport needs the cold cash but it also needs people with managerial and technical skills to guide its development. Skills in strategic planning, financial management, human resource development and marketing are urgently required if the talent that abounds in the Caribbean is to reach its fullest potential."

Warner said that unemployment in the region, one of the pressing socio-economic issues in the Caribbean, could be helped by professionalisation of football across the region.

"Investors and governments may therefore wish to consider the development of inter-regional professional sports leagues as vehicles for addressing the serious unemployment situation that plagues the Caribbean," he said. "Many of the world's leading corporations have invested billions in sport and have made huge profits.

"The economic potential of sport, generally, and of football, in particular, is rapidly gaining worldwide acceptance. But, sad to say, regrettably, not so much in this region . . . I still eagerly look forward to the day when similar sums will be placed at the disposal of our local sporting organisations. I pray fervently that we may see such in our lifetime!"

Warner also said the area of sports tourism in the region remained largely unexplored, despite the obvious attraction.

"I am aware of the commendable efforts that Barbados has made in this regard especially with international Test cricket but I suspect that as a region, we are still only dealing with the tip of the iceberg," Warner said.

In addition to the economic side, Warner said the social problems of health and juvenile delinquency which also plague the region can be helped by investment in sport generally, and football specifically.

"Through sport, the debilitating lack of self-confidence and self-esteem that afflict so many of our young people can be systematically redressed," he said. "Any investment in sport, therefore, is an investment in the youth of the region and ultimately, the future of the Caribbean."

Ironically, the BFA has just been told it will get $400,000 from FIFA's GOAL project to help fund the purchase of its own headquarters.

The organisation currently rents its property on Cedar Avenue and has to share the facility with the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control.

Last week Keith Look Loy, one of 12 FIFA development officers globally, spent time assessing the BFA's infrastructure.

After touring the Island he said the facilities were solid, but agreed that new offices for the organisation were necessary both because of a current lack of space and because they could be used to help generate revenue.

The cash will not go directly into BFA coffers but will be administered by FIFA.