The decision of several islands not to send their football teams to the Island Games in Bermuda is no cause to panic, said Games organiser Jon Beard.Beard said Bermuda weren’t expecting to have anything like the number of athletes that attended the Games in the Isle of Wight last summer and pointed to the high cost of getting to Bermuda as one of the reasons teams were pulling out.Bermuda organisers sent out a questionaire to other island’s to gauge interest and while some teams have pulled out, Beard said that shouldn’t be taken as any indication of final numbers.“I guess the bigger issues are always going to be teams as opposed to individuals, because that’s much more difficult,” said Beard. “You can send four athletes or four swimmers, you can’t send four footballers. That I know, for a lot of countries, is the issue.“Teams that are saying right now that they will, and teams that are saying they won’t, things change. The biggest issue is the one of expense and transport out here.”So far football teams from the Isle of Wight, Guernsey, Alderney, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man have indicated that they will not take part in the Games, while Jersey are likely to cut their squad for the trip.Guernesy have also indicated that they will be sending a weakened athletics team because the Games, which will be held between July 13-19, 2013, clashes with the UK National Championships when several of their athletes will be bidding for Commonwealth Games spots.“The accommodation in Bermuda is very expensive,” said Steve Jacobs, chairman of the Island Games Association of Jersey. “We’ve had some costs back from them of £105 a night per person, sharing a room of three people.“It’s slightly better than I thought it would be but we’re logistically left with trying to get the team over there.”However, while some islands are cutting back, Falkland Islands have told Beard they will be attending and he also expects Cayman Islands to send a stronger squad than normal given their proximity to Bermuda.“We’re not panicking or falling over on our swords, we weren’t expecting that we would get anything like the 3000 (competitors) that went to the Isle of Wight,” said Beard. “That was £30 a night for accomodation and a ferry ride to get there, it’s not that sort of a Games.“We’re hoping on something like 1500 athletes, which makes the accomodation somewhat easier and we still have a good Games. If we don’t have one of the sports, we don’t have one of the sports.”The main issue for teams travelling to Bermuda is cost, with rooms being quoted at $150 a night and that’s after athletes have paid the $1500 it is expected to cost them to get here.“Some of the Channel Islands have been in touch with British Airways to see if British Airways would put on another flight, because you’ll always fill that coming back out of here whatever happens,” said Beard.“Everybody is working hard to see if we can extra airlift at reasonable prices, and we’re doing all we can to make sure the accomodation is as cheap as we can get it.”Whatever happens, Beard is expecting Bermuda to host a good Games in less than two years time and believes the Island can have little complaint if football isn’t a part of that tournament.“The (Bermuda) men’s football team have been once and the women’s team probably three times, because of the cost,” he said. “If someone is saying they can’t come to us because of the cost, then we can’t throw our hands up in horror because we haven’t been able to do the same thing going that way.“Overall I’ve been pleased with the feedback we’ve had. All in all we’re not panicking yet, we’ll probably save that until after Christmas.”