The winners of this season's Premier Division will play in the first stages of the CONCACAF Champions League next season, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

As part of the Bermuda Football Association (BFA) plans to develop the game on the Island, technical director Derek Broadley has recommended the Premier Division's champions enter the annual international club tournament.

In a document obtained by The Gazette the BFA set out their plans for a wholesale restructuring of domestic football which also includes changes to the league structure and the loss of one cup competition.

Back in the 1980s PHC Zebras side took Bermuda football to dizzying heights by reaching the quarter finals of the CONCACAF Club Championship.

Part of that star-studded side was former PHC assistant coach Jack Castle who describes Zebras' famous run as one of his career highlights.

"I felt the tournament really helped improve the overall standard of Bermudian football back then," said the former defender. "Testing ourselves against other teams from the region greatly improved our team.

"In fact when we returned the other local teams had to raise their level just to compete with us.

"We weren't the only Bermudian team to enter, I remember Hotels, Somerset Trojans and Dandy Town also playing in the competition but everyone obviously remembers PHC's famous run when we reached the quarter finals.

"It was an exciting time for me and those games were some of my fondest memories as a player.

"We had some really great players back in those days with the likes of Sammy Swan, Kevin Dill and Frankie Ming to name a few."

The ex-Bermuda national team assistant coach fully supports Broadley's intriguing suggestion but believes the current teams pushing for the title would find the going tough initially.

"I think it's certainly something to be encouraged," he said. "It could only help improve local football.

"Any team that wins the Premier Division title should be able to compete in the CONCACAF region, although I think players would have to become a whole lot more dedicated and committed."

Devonshire Cougars defender Omar Butterfield believes entering the CONCACAF Champions League would be a "mouth-watering" prospect.

"It's a good thing, it's a good thing for the league, it's a good thing, I hope to be there," said Butterfield.

"It's a mouth-watering prospect and makes you want to really get up to it, to do what you've got to do to be there.

"That should be the same for everybody in the league, it's the type of goal you should be setting yourself.

"Our aim is to participate in every tournament that we can, to make ourselves better players, we should be aiming to get there as champions, to represent our country.

"We had an opportunity to go before but it fell through."

The CONCACAF Champions League is the annual international club football championship for teams from the North America, Central America, and the Caribbean region.

The competition is open to the leading teams in the region, and replaced the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, which ran from 1962 to 2008.

The winner earns a berth in the next FIFA Club World Cup, which pits each continental confederation's champion against the others annually.