Football Union Youth Tournament because of a clash with a planned tour of Europe.

The team coached by Kenny Thompson qualified for the tournament in Haiti with handsome victories over the Cayman Islands and the US Virgin Islands.

The finals were orginally due to take place this week, but were put back to August 21-28 because of fears over security in Haiti after outbreaks of violence related to elections. The European tour will run from August 18-31.

Bermuda Football Association requested a change of dates from the CFU for the Haiti tournament, but were told that was not possible.

BFA general secretary David Sabir confirmed yesterday the under-16s had withdrawn.

He added that the European tour, which involved the youngsters travelling to England, Belgium, Holland and Germany, had been paid for by a huge fundraising effort and that cancellation of the tour now would mean the loss of those funds.