Sports Minister Dale Butler?s intervention to save the Davis Cup campaign came at the expense of the under 17 soccer league.

A grant of just under $10,000 was handed out by Government to ensure the Island?s tennis stars could compete in their sport?s premier international team event but the Minister revealed to that the decision to give that money to the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Assocation (BLTA) was to the detriment of other sports ? including a proposed policing grant to the Bermuda Football Association (BFA) which could have saved the youth league from the scrap heap.

Gang warfare across the Island was given as the reason that teams were unwilling to fulfil their fixtures, a problem that had prompted Butler to try and procure funding for security at games.

But with the BLTA unable to fulfil its Davis Cup obligations for the first time in nine years, Butler decided to push the cash in that direction instead.

?We only have limited funds and they are strictly set in our budget at the beginning of the year,? Butler said yesterday.

?I was sitting here with 20 different proposals from a range of sports, all in need of financial assistance. It is a matter of prioritising and it is a difficult task because so many causes are so worthy.

?Yes, I was considering trying to divert some money to a BFA grant for policing, but when the decision was made to scrap the league it helped me decide that the money should go to tennis.

?Not to send a team to the Davis Cup would have been a real shame for Bermuda and it would have denied Island sportsmen a chance to compete at the highest level of international competition.

?I approached the Ministry of Finance but there were no funds available so we had to look carefully at our budget and find a way of generating the money from there.

?It is always very tough but by this money going to the Davis Cup team, it is not just football which missed out, it is junior golf, it is boxing, it is all the other sports that had proposals or requests with us.?

Butler also revealed that there were no funds available to assist the organisers of the Bermuda Squash Open, whose tournament featuring world class players begins next week ? Government funding for that had to come from the Tourism Department instead.

And responding to funding questions raised in yesterday?s by BLTA president David Lambert, whose team?s $13,000 costs for next month?s trip to Costa Rica have been met by an anonymous donation from a member of his own organisation as well as Government backing, Butler is adamant that the issues of a Sports Foundation are being addressed ? although he appeared less favourable when it comes to a sports lottery.

?Issues such as that are a matter for the Progressive Labour Party as a whole,? he continued.

?But we are looking very carefully at the possibility of some form of Sports Foundation.

?There are three main issues in sport in Bermuda; space, of which we are running out, funding, due to the number of sports requiring financial assistance, and leadership, of those involved in the various organisations.

?With regards to space, we are looking at creative ways of different sports working together and sharing facilities to make the most of what we have.

?On the issue of funding, as I have said, we are looking at a Sports Foundation, and on the issue of leadership we are looking how we can best help the leaders and the volunteers who work to enhance sport on the Island both for recreational purposes and for the benefit of those looking to compete at the highest possible level.?