Timmy Figureido is looking forward to just donning his goalkeeper's gloves and doing what he does best after enduring a rollercoaster week with A-League soccer team, the Hampton Roads Mariners.

The Bermuda national team goalkeeper, along with the rest of the Virginia-based squad, were released by club officials on Tuesday and coach Shaun McDonald resigned in a dispute over payments.

On Monday the Mariners, who are 0-5 in the new season, announced they did not have enough cash to pay the players' salaries.

They planned to continue playing the rest of the season, but with a patched-up team that would be paid via a complicated bonus system.

That system would have seen the players paid $50 per game, $50 per goal, $25 per assist and $100 to goalkeepers for every 12th save.

Figureido and his team-mates were notified of their mass release via a letter posted in their locker room. Players were told that if they wanted to play under the system, they had to re-sign by Tuesday afternoon.

Nine of approximately 20 Mariners players attended practice on Tuesday morning, but some said the only reason for being there was to keep up their fitness.

The situation changed again on Wednesday when United Soccer League officials flew to Virginia to intervene in the financial wrangle and meet with a prospective new owner.

David Askinas, the USL's executive director and chief operating officer and Tim Holt, director of A-League operations, are believed to have spoken with Mike Field, a local businessman.

"We're going to work out a transition programme for me to take over the team," Field said before meeting with the USL representatives.

Askinas was in an upbeat mood later.

"We think there are positive changes coming that are going to excite the community," he said, adding that the USL was acting as an intermediary between Field and the current ownership group headed by managing partner Felicia Gordon.

Figureido was on his way to Pittsburgh yesterday for tonight's game with the Riverhounds. In the second of a double-header they play at their home venue, the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, tomorrow night, a match to be shown on Fox Sports World.

The player's wife Allison said it had been an unfortunate turn of events but both she and her husband were looking on the positive side.

"We knew that something dramatic was going to happen with the owners as they had been harping about money for a while," she told The Royal Gazette yesterday. "The players are grateful that the A-league has stepped in on their behalf."

Figureido, she said, was determined to continue living his dream of playing professional soccer and was not going to let something like this get him down.

"A lot of people think that these soccer players are just jocks that can't find a real job, when in fact most players are college graduates - many with masters degrees," she said. "Just like other occupations, soccer is a calling. You play because you love the game. It's that simple.

"It would be like telling a singer not to sing. When you wake up and all you can think about is singing - then you're a singer."

The same, she said, held true for soccer.

"Yes, sometimes I feel that soccer is "the other woman," but you can't ask someone to change who they are," she said. "Tim and I have been together for 15 years.

"Yeah, I was there when he first started to seriously develop his skills at age 14. We've been through a lot, high school, college, marriage and kids and you know what? I would do it over again in a heartbeat.

"No woman could ask for a more loving, gentle and understanding husband. I just hope that Tim is able to live his dreams; if just for a little while longer."