their build up to the Caribbean Cup in May.

Technical director Clyde Best confirmed yesterday he has been negotiating with officials from the Caribbean island and hopes to finalise matches against the national team and other representative sides within the next couple of weeks.

While a boost to the players, who have been starved of international football, the news will be a disappointment to fans on the Island who hoped to see some international action in Bermuda after tours by Surinam and Puerto Rico were called off last year.

But Best is keen for his players to get experience of different conditions by playing abroad.

"I'm a great believer in exposing kids to different environments. We have to get them geared up for that. Let's travel and learn; you don't learn much if you always have home advantage.'' He also claimed that it was difficult to attract quality teams to the Island because of financial constraints. "I would estimate that to get a decent team in from England would cost about $50,000. And to get one in from the Caribbean would probably be about half that.

"I feel sorry for the fans but we have to decide as a country whether we want to be really serious about sport -- I'm not just talking about football here.

"If we are, we need to find the means and that means a lot more money.'' Best, one of a delegation of Bermudian sports officials to attend a coaching conference in St. Kitts earlier this month, would like to play three or four matches there in late April before heading to the Cayman Islands for the Caribbean Cup, where they will take on the hosts, Cuba and the Turks and Caicos.

He said: "It would be great to get down there as they have a lot of teams in close proximity to each other.'' Best has also been talking to contacts with Major League Soccer sides in the Florida area in case plans for St. Kitts fail to come to fruition.

An under-strength national team travelled to the French Caribbean island of St. Martin last year for two friendlies while an Island team was beaten 4-0 by Major League Soccer team Kansas City Wizards at the National Stadium in April.

But that is the only international competition they have faced since Best was appointed to his post full-time. He was at the helm in an interim role for the two narrow defeats at the hands of World Cup qualifiers Jamaica in last year's Caribbean Cup.

The former West Ham striker admits the lack of serious opposition has made it difficult for the squad, who are currently training twice a week.

"It is difficult to ask them to play one international last year and another the next. Look at the countries playing in the World Cup. They'll be playing about 20 internationals this year,'' he said.

He remains open-minded about the make-up of the squad to go the Caymans, although he admits to being particularly impressed by First Division top scorer Rohaan Simons, Devonshire Cougars striker Aljame Zuill and Dandy Town midfielder Damon Ming. "But they've all got something to offer. And we've got a lot of young guys away at college ... We're always looking at players. You can't just pick 20 and say that's it.''