A recent football match that had the potential for gang violence to rear its ugly head was never classified as "high risk" by Bermuda Football Association (BFA), The Royal Gazette has been told.

Last Sunday's Premier match involving Southampton Rangers and Boulevard at Southampton Oval was marred after the final whistle had blown when as many as five youths bombarded a bus carrying the visiting team with bottles and other projectiles.

As part of their efforts to ensure safety and security at football matches, the BFA have been tasked with identifying matches deemed as a potential high risk for outbreaks of violence between rival factions and beefing up security with the assistance of Police personnel.

However, a BFA source has informed this newspaper that last weekend's match at the Oval was not considered to be a "high risk" and as such Police presence was not a requirement.

BFA president Richard Calderon did not reply to emails yesterday. But Bermuda Police media relations officer Dwayne Caines has confirmed that Police were never made aware of any potential threat of violence prior to the Rangers/Boulevard league clash.

"This game was never flagged out by the Bermuda Football Association to Police as a game deemed to be a high risk. The Bermuda Police liaise with the BFA to determine whether or not games are high risk.

"And we have what we believe to be an active partnership with the BFA who give the Police a list of the games they deem high risk, based on a list of known individuals and the location of the game," he told The Gazette.

In recent years an ongoing fued between rival gangs from the town and country areas has witnessed random acts of violence flaring up at football venues, prompting the BFA to take drastic action to try and stamp out the disturbing trend.

"The only way we can effectively police is if the BFA alerts us as per our agreement with them, and in this instance we were not alerted that this was in fact a high risk environment," added Caines.

Given the potential for violence to flare up at the Oval last weekend, there are those who are adamant more rigid security measures should have been put in place to discourage gang-related activity.

"This was a high risk game and there should have been a Police presence at the match," argued Boulevard Community Club (BCC) president Steven Proctor who also serves on the BFA executive. "We are really concerned about this matter and I think every club should be because there's just no place for violence in our football."