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Hood and Onions join First Division

Robin Hood and MR Onions will be admitted to the First Division at a meeting of the Bermuda Football Association executive committee tomorrow evening.

The two former Commercial League sides were the only teams to apply for a place in the new structure and are expected to be unanimously elected as full members of the BFA.

And a member of the committee revealed that planning on the make up of next year's competitions had already begun with Robin Hood and MR Onions included in the initial scheduling.

Meanwhile the other former Commercial League clubs have formed a new league, called the Corona Football League. The Goslings-backed venture is expected to be based at BAA Field, with games played on a new synthetic pitch that is being laid at the ground in the next few weeks.

BAA president John Doran confirmed that the club had already paid a first installment on the new pitch, which will be installed by FieldTurf, the Canadian company that created the new BFA facility at Gym Field.

As part of the revamping of BAA, new floodlights will also be installed in a re-development that is likely to cost upwards of $1million, and which the club hope to have completed by the middle of August.

"Payments have been made and work will begin very shortly," said Doran.

While Doran has played a major role in the development, he was also quick to praise the BFA, and several Government departments, for their efforts in seeing such a big project come to fruition.

"(BFA president) Richard Calderon and I have an excellent relationship and along with (General Secretary) David Sabir, the BFA have helped BAA with getting the field done," said Doran.

"They have written to Youth and Sport and the Department of Planning voicing their full support for the project and the benefit of the community as a whole. All the Government departments have been fantastic in helping us move the project along."

The face of football in Bermuda will change rapidly in the coming weeks, and including Robin Hood and MR Onions in the First Division means that the new league structure is finally taking shape.

With the row about the dissolution of the Commercial League now over, 13 teams are understood to have joined the new over-30s Masters League, while nine sides have applied to join the under-23 Development League.

And despite their impending move to the First Division, Robin Hood and MR Onions are also looking at the possibility of entering second teams in the new Corona League as well.

While the new league won't come under the direct authority of the BFA, the founders are believed to have asked the association to help form the league's disciplinary committee and are keen to develop the league working alongside the BFA rather than against it.

"The new Corona League is being formed, but is being done so in a way that it will work with the BFA," said one of the league's founders Mike McGrath.