Bermuda's national soccer team will come up against some of the stars of the English Premier League, should they take up West Ham's offer of a friendly match in London next April.

The Hammers' assistant manager Frank Lampard last night promised the Island would face much more than a reserve side at the London club's Upton Park ground, despite the timing of the match during the crucial late stages of the English season.

And while the Bermuda squad are based in London, they will be invited to use all of West Ham's impressive training facilities, added Lampard.

"We will probably put a decent side out, with about half or three-quarters from our first team squad,'' said Lampard. "At that stage of the season, we're likely to have a few players on suspension who would be able to play in a game like that. And the reserve league we play in peters out at that stage as well.'' That could mean Bermuda's part-timers being pitted against the likes of Lampard's son, the England international Frank Lampard jnr., volatile Italian star Paolo Di Canio and flamboyant Costa Rican Paulo Wanchope.

Lampard said Bermuda would be getting special treatment compared to most overseas sides visiting to play a friendly, because of the club's long-established links with the Island's technical director Clyde Best.

Best made his name at West Ham in the late 1960s and early '70s, playing alongside both Lampard and the current Hammers manager Harry Redknapp.

"We get occasional requests for games like this and when we do it, we usually play on one of our training pitches, but because of our ties with Clyde we will play this on our main pitch, Upton Park,'' said Lampard.

"Clyde and I go back to about 1968 and we played together a long while. We shared some great times. It's just so nice when you come out of the playing side but you keep in touch and we can still have tie-ups like this.

"The players will be welcome to use our four training pitches -- three are grass, one is Astroturf -- plus one pitch slightly smaller than full-size, which we call a nine-a-side pitch.

"Then there is a big gym and weights room and good medical facilities -- everything a big, modern club can offer.'' Lampard added that Bermuda would enjoy a much better surface for football than Best himself had experienced in the same stadium.

"The pitch was relaid last season and it's a mixture of real grass and plastic,'' he said. "The imitation grass is knitted into the turf, so the pitch holds together better. There are one or two pitches like it in the Premiership. Middlesbrough have got one.

"We've had problems with the pitch going back 30 years. The place where we used to come out of the tunnel and onto the field used to turn to sand and muck.'' Both Lampard and Redknapp have visited Bermuda regularly in recent years to help with summer soccer camps for youngsters.

The tour which Best has planned as preparation for next year's World Cup qualifying campaign and which could also include further games in Germany still depends on funding and whether Bermuda Football Association's Finance Committee will give the trip their approval.

Best friend: Frank Lampard, former team-mate of Clyde Best, who has promised to roll out the red carpet for Bermuda should they visit West Ham next April.