The First Division has been reduced to eight teams after the withdrawal of BAA.

After failing to fulfil their first two fixtures of the season, against Robin Hood and Vasco da Gama, the club informed the Bermuda Football Association that they were unable to continue playing in the island’s second-tier league.

Michael McGrath, the BAA president, confirmed that official communication regarding the withdrawal has been sent to the BFA after the club realised that they did not have enough numbers to complete their league obligations this season.

“We sent an e-mail to the BFA to inform them that we are withdrawing from the First Division,’’ McGrath said.

“We had a plan in place but the last few pieces of the jigsaw didn’t quite click into place for the season.

“We have a lot of under-18 players who are good enough to play, but unfortunately they are underage. The current ruling states that they have to be over 16 to play, so that hampered our numbers a little bit.

“We know we’re in good shape for next season because we have a lot of players coming through who will be strong and ready for next season, and we were looking to retain the players in our programme because we didn’t want them going off to other clubs.

“We tried hard to have the First Division side for them to have something to look forward to, but a few of the things we were hoping for didn’t quite happen.

“We also got some injuries which put us under a lot of pressure. We didn't want to get into a situation deep into the league where we pull out, so we thought that it’s best that we regroup for next season.

“We were working with other clubs to try and strengthen, but it didn’t come to fruition.”

BAA were missing from the league last season just two years after returning as a result of an exodus that saw the team coached by Andrew Bascome at the time losing 17 players in the wake of missing out on promotion.

“Our plan is to come back next season with a bigger and stronger squad,’’ McGrath said.

“The new format of the league should hopefully aid the movement of players as well.

“We still have the option of under-18 football, as they've played there before and they've been competitive. A bigger challenge for them would have been playing in the First Division, but we don’t want players lost due to lack of playing, so we’ll keep them active.

“We've got good facilities and good coaches. We also have a good background of being able to coach those players through our programmes.”