governing body, FIFA.

The one million dollar award, believed to be the biggest ever grant to an individual sport on the Island, will be spread over four years, starting in 1999.

It is a huge shot in the arm for the Island's national team who can now look forward with certainty to taking part in the qualifying stages of the 2002 World Cup, and has left Island soccer officials "elated''.

The cash injection was revealed to The Royal Gazette by Jack Warner, president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association of Football (CONCACAF), under whose umbrella Bermuda comes.

Warner, a vice-president of FIFA, was on the Island to conduct yesterday's meeting of CONCACAF's executive committee.

The grant follows requests from CONCACAF to FIFA president Joao Havelange to assist the smaller nations.

Havelange, who steps down from his post this year, responded by announcing that all 200 FIFA member nations would get the money over the next four years.

Warner said the money was renewable "for time immemorial'', subject to a satisfactory audit.

"The money won't mean a great deal to the bigger nations like Germany and England,'' he conceded. "But it will be great for countries like Bermuda.

"We know the suffering of the small nations -- the expenses for a World Cup match are the same for Bermuda as they are for the US and while the US can attract audiences of 50,000, the maximum at a stadium in Bermuda is 6,000.'' Bermuda Football Association president Neville Tyrrell said: "We're elated.

It almost assures us of being in the next World Cup qualifying rounds because with that sort of money around we should not have any excuses for not preparing a team properly.

"And it couldn't have come at a better time. Although we've got to wait about a year for it, it gives us time to plan what we can do because, as Mr. Warner says, we've got to justify our use of the money just like we have to do with our sponsors.'' He added: "The things that Mr. Warner has stipulated is that the money has got to be used for the preparation of teams, specifically World Cups, administration, improving standards of officials, coaches. The list is quite long.'' Tyrrell, however, admitted he had known that the cash was forthcoming for several weeks.

"We've been holding this under our hats since Mr. Warner made me privy to the information and then confirmed it about a month ago,'' he revealed.

"We were waiting to release it because it could have had a negative reaction on sponsors by saying `look, we don't need your money any more'. But it takes a lot of money to run football.'' Warner, meanwhile, was full of praise for the improvements the BFA have made in their running of the game.

A critic of the way the Association handled the Miami Seven drugs affair four years ago, he said they had shown "great resilience'' to re-establish the sport's credibility.

"Many bigger associations would have folded under the pressure,'' he said.

He was also impressed by the steps being made towards the establishment of the country's National Sports Centre.

"This country is one in a million,'' he said. "Nowhere in the history of sport has a country of 60,000 people had a facility costing $50m -- that's almost $1,000 for every person.

"For those who say it is too costly let me take the example of Jamaica. Go there and all the talk is about the Reggae Boyz. Crime is down about 20 percent. This shows the impact sport can have on a small country.''