Bermuda Football Association (BFA) president Larry Mussenden has defended their decision to withdraw from the men’s Under-23 Olympic qualifiers, insisting: “We just haven’t got the funds.”Several prominent local football figures have heavily criticised the BFA for pulling out of July’s regional qualifiers, including ex-West Ham striker Clyde Best and former national team boss Kenny Thompson.But yesterday Mussenden hit back at the critics and said the Association had no choice but to make the difficult decision due to budget cutbacks, brought on by the credit crunch.He said it would have cost an estimated $50,000 to enter each qualifying round, a sum they couldn’t justify spending considering the senior team had important World Cup qualifies and a Digicel Cup campaign on the horizon.“Our grant was cut by a significant degree (by Government) and we’re no longer able to do all of things we want to do. We’ve had to make some really tough choices,” said Mussenden.“We had entered various competitions: the Olympic qualifiers, the World Cup qualifiers and the Digicel Caribbean Cup, but we recognised we just couldn’t fund them all.“The critics must understand there are huge costs involved in entering a team into qualifiers. Right now we just don’t have the money and it would be a cruel decision not to enter the second round should the team have advanced.”The BFA have found cash to help support the Bermuda Hogges albeit a significantly reduced sum than last season and, with the help of FIFA funding, will send two women’s team into international competitions this summer“We’re supporting the Hogges programme which allows for 16 matches and we’re of the view those games will play a significant part in preparation for any campaign we decide to enter,” Mussenden added.“At this difficult time we believe the Hogges give us best value for our funds.”“In respect to the women’s programme, FIFA provides funding and mandates it must be used for our women’s programme we’re not allowed to use it for any other purpose.“The BFA previously underused funding for our women’s programme and FIFA have reminded us we have an obligation to use it.”Last week Best urged the BFA to reconsider their decision to withdraw the Under-23s from the Olympic qualifiers.He said: “I don’t think that’s a good decision as far as our development is concerned. If we haven’t go the funds we have to find a way to trim funds from something else . . . I think a lot of our young players will be disheartened by this decision.”Earlier this year, the BFA warned that several programmes were facing an uncertain future and could be axed altogether because the $1million grant they previously received had been reduced to $750,000 in the recent Budget.The first competition to fall victim of the BFA cutbacks was this year’s annual Clyde Best Invitational Youth Tournament.