Bermuda plan to tour Barbados and Antigua next year as coach Kenny Thompson sets about his mission to transform the Island into one of the most feared football teams in the Caribbean region.

The details were revealed yesterday and come as the national team prepares to take on the Bajans here over the Christmas period.

Explaining the team will travel south in May, Bermuda Football Association General Secretary David Sabir said: "We have had and continue to have a very, very good relationship with our BFA (Barbados Football Association) friends and have always discussed getting Bermuda's team off the Island and travelling.

"They have extended the invitation which we gratefully accepted. We have also been extended an invitation to Antigua."

Sabir said confirmation came last week when he and BFA President Larry Mussenden were at a seminar in Trinidad put on by world governing body, FIFA.

"We were very pleased and will take advantage of the situation going forward," Sabir said. "We are hopeful that we are going to combine the time we are in Barbados with a tour through Antigua playing their national squad."

Sabir said he believed the trips, coming after the country has already begun its World Cup 2006 qualifying campaign, would be of great benefit to the Island's players.

"This is in keeping with what our overall goal is ? to try and elevate our senior national programme back to the status of being one of the best in the Caribbean," he said. "In order to do this we have to play games. These games against opponents who are ranked higher than us (in the FIFA standings), but who do not necessarily have better players than us, give us some meaningful match competition and at the same time continue to expose our players internationally. It can only be seen as a good thing.

"We have hosted more teams in Bermuda versus us travelling, so now our players get to experience football off the Island in environments that they are not used to. Perhaps this will help them grow quicker in the international arena."

Sabir said he believed the players would represent the Island proudly abroad.

"We have good players in Bermuda; we have good people in Bermuda," he said. "We know how to conduct ourselves. We have been focussing, through the national coach, on technical improvements but, as with anything, without match competition it is very difficult to gauge were you are and certainly very difficult for the players to understand what is required unless they go up against players who are better than them or who have experienced more than them in these settings."

Meanwhile, the Bajans, known as the Rockets, travel to Bermuda in confident mood having beaten rivals Jamaica and drawn with Finland and Martinique.

A spokesman for the Barbados Football Association said the team was an "exciting blend of youth and experience" but expected "stiff competition" from their hosts.

The Rockets' team, which includes the nucleus of the 2002 World Cup squad, is expected to be: Adrian Chase, Bernard Howell (goalkeepers); Wayne Sobers, Stuart Hall, Randy Burrowes, Dwight James, John Parris, Johnathan Straker (defenders); Bryan Neblett, Gregory Goodridge, Kent Hall (2003 Player of the Year), Kirk Cox, Lesron Defreitas, Norman Forde, Rudy Grosvenor (midfielders); Ryan Lucas, Llewellyn Riley and Walton Burrowes (forwards).

Kenville Layne is the coach, while Sherlock Yarde is the manager. Barbados play Grenada on January 11 and Canada on January 18 in Barbados before heading to Grenada and Antigua to continue the build-up to the World Cup qualifiers in June.