With an abundance of young talent set to converge on the international soccer scene in the near future, Devonshire Colts and national team skipper Shannon Burgess agrees that in the long run it's essential to focus on the youth.

But he believes it's also imperative to have a national senior team in action.

Although the 30 year-old applauds the new Bermuda Football Association administration's approach of placing more emphasis on the youngsters, he feels that the current stagnation of the senior programme is denying those same players the chance of gaining valuable experience playing alongside their senior counterparts.

"It's important that we have an active senior team because it helps to maintain their (youngsters') interest," said Burgess.

The captain recalled that when he was a youngster in the international programme, his aspirations were fuelled by watching senior players in action.

"I gained a lot of inspiration from watching the senior players compete against various visiting teams," he said. "The experience afforded me as a youngster the opportunity to further develop my knowledge of the game."

He noted how players like Lorenzo Symonds and Dennis Brown contributed to making him a better player.

"I think that the benefits of having an active national senior programme are immense as it not only offers aspiring individuals the opportunity to further their international exposure, it also provides a boost for the economy," he said.

Burgess noted that with Bermuda located just an hour and a half away from the North American east coast, the BFA should take advantage of US teams wanting to visit our shores for pre or post season tours.

"But I don't think that will happen if we haven't got an active senior team," he said. "I don't know what decisions they (BFA) are presently making, but whatever decisions that they do make will probably come down to funds, and it's unfortunate that we don't have the financial resources available to fund both of our thriving senior and junior programmes sufficiently.

"Obviously they have things that they want to do, but if they do have things in place where they think that the development of youth is going to benefit football further down the road . . . well hey, that's their decision to make. Obviously various people will have different points of view.

"However, as a player coming along, I don't know if focusing exclusively on a youth programme is the way to go."