DWAYNE (Streaker) Adams thinks the United Soccer League team and David Bascome's Island Soccer League ? both which will start this summer ? will go some way towards helping take Bermuda's football to a new level.

But the former Bermuda national team goalkeeper wonders why such forward thinking didn't come from the Bermuda Football Association. Adams believes today's players need more incentives in order to make the sacrifices needed to be good footballers at international level. In the amateur game there are the same, ongoing challenges facing players. "When I was coming through the housing market was on its way up, when I was coming through rent wasn't two-and-a-half to three thousand dollars a month, and that's not including lights and telephone," said Adams who played for various youth teams at the national level before making his senior debut a week after his 16th birthday.

He was just past the age of 30 when he played his last game for Bermuda, young for a goalkeeper but something which happens with top players retiring early.

"If things were done right, in terms of how other countries focus on their national programme, Dwayne (Streaker) Adams, Carlos Smith, Devarr Boyles, Shaw Smith and Kentoine Jennings who just recently retired...these are the players who would still be representing your national team and slowly filtering out," said Adams.

"But because things are not done the way they should be we find ourselves retiring from that scene very early. My knowledge of the game is far and beyond when I was playing years ago. If I was still playing now I see a lot I could be doing to help, however I'm not playing anymore, I'm on the other side and encouraging somebody else.

"From a country standpoint we're not doing it right and if you don't get that right you won't get anything else right and that is going to filter down. The national team should be the pride of our country when it comes to soccer."

Added Adams: "The national level should be more programme-structured for players. To me, our best players are not playing for Bermuda right now. The guys who played the other day (Digicel qualifying) should just be breaking into the national team but now they are the core crop."

Adams thinks players should be adequately compensated when they represent their country, especially those who lose money when they take time away from their jobs to represent their country.

"I know money isn't everything but money is going to help players to motivate themselves, so that it is not a question of 'am I losing (money) by going to play for my country or am I losing by going to training?'"

Adams first represented Bermuda as a 13 or 14-year-old member in the under-19 squad. "I was committed to the programme right up to 30 years old," he says.

But it is different with today's players who face the expense of buying their own boots and shin pads. Professional players have those things provided for them, leaving them to concentrate on playing.

"Guys will say 'if I got boots, tracksuits and jerseys while playing in this professional league and come September my (local) club gives me nothing, why should I play'," said Adams.

"One of the things that could be good, and it could still happen, is if each of the professional (ISL) teams aligned themselves with a local club. Then the clubs could possibly get their gear cheaper.

"There has to be the right incentives and environment."

Adams feels the top 20 national team players should be involved in training programmes in local gyms and with personal trainers so that a certain level of fitness is maintained.

"Countries like Trinidad and Jamaica have players playing for clubs in the US and England and so when we come up against these players we are physically behind them because we're not in shape," the former Bermuda goalkeeper says.

Adams is familiar with the league that the Bermuda team will be playing in, having spent about four years with the Charlotte Eagles. In his final season with them he was actually based in Bermuda and used to travel on weekends to play matches. The Eagles are scheduled to play a league match in Bermuda on June 6.

Adams still keeps himself in good physical shape and says he would be interested in a spot in the Bermuda USL team if it "was the right situation".

"I travelled on Friday and played Friday nights or Saturdays and travelled back home on Sunday and was at work on Monday," he explained. "It was the right facility for me to do something like that. I definitely wouldn't give up my day job."

North Village will continue their quest for another league title when they host bottom team St. David's at Bernard Park. Village, presently fourth in the tables six points behind leaders Boulevard, missed the chance to cut that gap to four points when they could only manage a 2-2 draw with PHC last weekend.

Last season's triple crown champions are not finding things their own way this season, with Adams putting it down to a number of factors. They have only the league and FA Cup left to win after an early exit in both the Friendship and Dudley Eve last month.

"I had a lot of commitment from the players last year, we had extra training sessions but that still comes back in the end and hits our players in the pocket," said Adams as he compared this season to last.

"You win the triple crown, get a motorcade and may have a party but financially it does nothing for you. When you go into the next season you have to balance out success on the field and off the field. The reality is you have to take care of oneself first.

"Not all my players are 'Corporate Bermuda' players, they are painters, construction workers, so if it is a bad (weather) day I might get more guys training because they couldn't do what they do from 9-5. If it's a good day you will see the difference."

He added: "For the success we had last year, if we were a top club anywhere else you would see the players get a lot of money extra in their pay cheques, versus our guys who get a certificate and a medal around their necks which does nothing for them in the long run."

Adams has played a couple of games for Village this season, and while he trains and keeps himself fit, the coach insists he won't pick himself over one of the other keepers as long as they are turning out to train. Some people have tried to talk him into playing on a more regular basis.

"I get it all the time, especially when things are not going as well as we want," he said.

"I definitely wouldn't play myself over another 'keeper, that's not what we're trying to do down there, we're trying to build a programme. As long as my 'keepers are turning out to train I will definitely play them before myself."

Other matches on Sunday will see league leaders Boulevard playing Paget at BAA Field and PHC hosting Dandy Town at Southampton Oval. Saturday's match between Somerset and Devonshire Cougars has been rescheduled for February 25 because of problems with the lights at Somerset.

In First Division action on Sunday the top four teams meet each other as leaders Ireland Rangers travel to Police Field to meet second-placed Devonshire Colts while third and fourth Southampton Rangers and Wolves meet at Southampton Oval (12.30).

In the other matches Hamilton Parish play St. George's at St. David's, Somerset Eagles entertain Social Club at White Hill (12.30) and Prospect play X-Roads at Police Field at 3.00.