disappointment over the failure to have a quorum for Monday's Annual General Meeting at Social Club, but assured that it would not distract from their commitment to proceed with plans to "regroup'' after the much-publicised Miami Seven debacle.

The failure to have the adjourned meeting completed has forced the association to reschedule the meeting for August 21, at a venue still to be determined.

"We are a bit disappointed, especially since we had such a good turnout for the first meeting. But it perhaps was an oversight on our part to schedule it for Monday since it is the time of the year, after Cup Match, when so many people are travelling,'' said Thompson.

It was expected that affiliates would take the opportunity to raise several questions pertaining to the association's handling of events during the past season, one, of course, being the Miami controversy.

However, while the lack of a quorum prevented this from occurring, the president made it no secret that the incident involving the Bermuda Under-23s was upsetting and unprecedented in local sports.

"The BFA has never had anything this serious facing them, not only the BFA but no national body on the Island has encountered a situation like we did.

Now we would just want to put that all behind us and looking forward to getting back on course,'' said Thompson.

Continued on page 15 Thompson `optimistic' about future Continued from page 13 "I personally am looking to get the year behind me, it has been a very frustrating period for the BFA, physically, mentally and emotionally. We are optimistic that we will enjoy a better time next season,'' he added.

In his bid to "regroup'' Thompson noted that among his priorities next season is to improve on the domestic season, which includes re-evaluating competitions like the Friendship Trophy and Shield, and re-organising Bermuda's international programmes by placing more emphasis on youth.

"We will be looking into ways to reduce the number of competitions, hopefully we will be able to raise the competitiveness by doing so. I've always thought that as amateurs we play a lot of soccer within the six month schedule and I have already appointed a committee to look into this,'' said Thompson.

"As far as youth teams are concerned we intend to assemble as many teams as possible, we need to get back to development and this is another area that I intend to concentrate on.'' Meanwhile, Bermuda's recent 5-0 away defeat against Costa Rica was regarded as unfortunate, but the president was proud of the fact that the team reached this far in the aftermath of Pan Am qualifying in Jamaica. The Under-23s returned home yesterday.

"Nobody likes to lose, but I am happy that we were able to go through with our commitment. The Olympics was our primary goal when we went to the Pan Am Games. There was a time when the lack of funds made us wonder if we would go through with it all and I am just pleased that we were and that we did rather well. Now we just have to regroup and look ahead with optimism,'' said Thompson.

RICHARD THOMPSON -- "It has been a frustrating period.''