Bermuda's World Cup campaign could get an extraordinary boost if soccer officials were prepared to take advantage of an amazing loophole in the regulations of world governing body FIFA, it emerged yesterday.

Under the loophole, Bermuda would be able to pick from an almost limitless supply of professionals from the top English and Scottish leagues to represent the country.

The Cayman Islands, whom Bermuda have beaten three times in the last eight months, have already acted on the option and will have five British professionals in the squad for their opening World Cup qualifier against Cuba in Havana on Sunday.

Bermuda, whose own squad was announced yesterday, fly out today to prepare for their first game against the British Virgin Islands the same day.

According to reports, the Caymans have taken up a FIFA-ratified ruling that allows any British player to turn out for any country that operates inside Britain's jurisdiction.

English paper The Guardian yesterday reported that the most high-profile player approached was David May, a defender with European club champions Manchester United.

He declined the offer, but several others accepted and played in a warm up game against Major League Soccer's DC United on Tuesday night -- a contest the American side won 5-0.

These players -- Barry Hayles of Fulham, Ged Brannan of Motherwell, David Barnett of Lincoln City, Martin O'Connor of Birmingham City, Dwayne Plummer of Bristol City and Neil Sharpe, of non-league Boreham Wood -- were among 24 approached by the Cayman Islands FA's overseas representative Barry McIntosh.

He received 22 positive replies, from which they were selected. The names of those turned down were not disclosed.

McIntosh told The Guardian: "I thought that maybe I would get one out of every three players I approached. In the end I had to disappoint several players.

And he added: "These players have agreed to join up with us not for the money, but simply because they wish to play international football. We are doing nothing wrong and, perhaps more importantly, nothing new. The United States have taken players from Puerto Rico under the same system.

"The Cayman Islands is a British dependency. We use the same passports; we have the Queen's face on our currency.'' Costas Takkas, the general secretary of the Cayman Islands FA dismissed suggestions that the players should be considered sporting mercenaries.

"We are looking to build a Cayman Islands team in its own right, not a second England side,'' he said. "These players have been very warmly welcomed; the local public is very excited by the idea.'' He explained that the situation came about following a Cayman Islands friendly against Jamaica, a game that the Jamaicans were using as a warm-up for the Gold Cup.

The Caymans had a number of players unavailable through injury and recruited two British players -- O'Connor and Sharpe -- to ensure a decent contest.

It went so well that the Caymans, in Takkas' words, "looked at the rules to see if British players would be eligible in an official capacity as well as an unofficial one''.

Bermuda soccer officials reacted with a certain amount of incredulity to the story yesterday and BFA president Neville Tyrrell seemed to rule out a similar move by the Island's soccer authorities.

He said: "I don't think we are likely to do that. We have a development plan going on and anyone not involved in that would not be considered. The Cayman Islands have obviously been burning the oil on this one. Good for them, but it's not something we would want to do. It is not in the spirit of the game.'' However, technical director Clyde Best said: "I wouldn't say no to the idea.

If other teams are doing it, we have to keep up with them. But ultimately it would be up to the president.'' Jon Beard, chairman of the coaching committee, added: "It's bizarre that anyone without any affiliation to the country can play for them and I'm amazed that their club managers would be happy about it.'' And he expressed surprise that they had not recruited from the Premier League.

"You would have expected them to do that if they wanted the best side,'' he said. "But maybe players from the lower divisions are not worried so much about their win bonuses.'' Takkas, however, claimed that the move was already helping the Caymans' development programme and would in the long-term improve the quality of the team.

"The other players have been remarkably warm about the whole situation,'' he said. "Unlike Bermuda, we don't have players in the professional leagues who can come back and pass things on to them. They are happy with the exposure they are now getting because of it and we have already arranged for three local players to go for trials with Watford.''