be met with a sense of relief rather than sadness.

From scuffling team-mates, rampaging fans and embattled referees, the Bermuda Football Association would like to file this one under F (for Forgettable) -- if only they didn't have so much more work to do.

Sunday's incident that caused the FA Cup semi-final to be abandoned was merely the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Island's marquee sport.

At various points during this stormy season, the BFA have threatened to pull the plug altogether. Referees have threatened to withdraw their services. And in January, a "roving task force'' and Police crackdown on hooligans was unveiled.

But, as evidenced by Sunday's melee at White Hill Field, players and fans have merely continued on their wanton path towards destruction.

Is this what they mean by calling a bluff? It is unfair, of course, to place the blame directly at the feet of the BFA.

It was their 1995 initiative, after all, that allowed managers of club grounds to ban Troy Thomas for a full year for assaulting a referee with an umbrella following a January 25 incident.

(Never mind the wisecracks about how being forced to watch club soccer for a year would be a more fitting punishment. And besides, given the lack of security at the gates, this ban, and others like it, is largely unenforceable.) And on January 29, the BFA admitted that video surveillance cameras were already in operation, although they would not say where, when or for how long they have been used.

Cameras would have been handy on Sunday but, we understand, were not in place.

When somewhere between 80 and 150 youths spilled onto the pitch and sent a police constable to hospital with stab wounds on that scary night last November, the BFA were quick to call a Press conference and maintain it was not their fault.

It was gangs, they said, and BFA president Neville Tyrrell thundered: "These thugs are your children, your neighbours and your friends. You are allowing them to destroy this country.'' And he was right: Society's ills have no business being vented at sporting events.

But while soccer should not be given the job of being a nation's baby-sitter, at some point the BFA have to take responsibility for what is happening in their house.

This is not to accuse the BFA of negligence; in fact, they are perhaps the most proactive of sports on an Island sorely lacking in vision.

Many important measures, particularly involving alcohol and security, have been introduced and more will be hopefully be brought into play after portions of Government's Drug Free Sports Policy arrive on April 1.

Alas, none of these immediately address the issue of deterrence.

Four times in the past two seasons, a referee or linesman has been assaulted but at no point were criminal charges ever brought forward.

When players fight each other, their team-mates, or in the case of Somerset two months ago, a coach, they are invariably dealt with internally and may receive a couple of paragraphs a day later before dying off. And these are only the ones that are reported.

What punishment, if any, that is meted out by clubs or the BFA is rarely released, even after a litany of phone calls, some of which are actually returned.

A wise man once said there is no such thing as bad publicity.

If the BFA, and other sports, are serious about curbing violence and other maladies, then maybe it's time they took the high road.

It is naive to think that tempers will not erupt -- they will -- and it is incredulous to think that people, especially in a small place such as Bermuda, will not witness them or, at the very least, hear of them.

That is why we have open courts, where, as the saying goes, justice must not only be done but must appear to be done.

The hope here is that sports, and not just the BFA, will take a stand.

More importantly, they will send a message -- and send it loudly for all to read and hear.

Let the entire Island know, through authoritative and stiff action, that poor sportsmanship will not, and cannot, be tolerated.