FORMER professional footballer Kyle Lightbourne has joined forces with a former Wolves general manager to set up a company aimed at promoting youth tours, tournaments and coaching courses.

The Bermudian has revealed exclusively to this columnist that he and Paul Taylor are partners in a company called Pro Soccer Consultant Ltd which will enable them to facilitate tours to England by youth teams for training and tournaments.

"Paul Taylor and I are coming together to do football tours and it will be offering players and club consultantcy, football tournaments, UK coaching networks, workshops and football breaks for the general public," Lightbourne explained.

"We're looking to do this worldwide and we're looking to cover all the areas of football, as far as people wanting to have an opportunity to go to England and play. If a club wanted to go to England we would able to get them accommodations, training facilities, teams to play against and if they wanted to watch matches at the same time we would be able to arrange that.

"We also will be organising football tournaments for teams ? probably looking at the younger age groups, such as under 17s."

Lightbourne, currently vacationing back in Bermuda, has kept his options open as far as life after football is concerned. He is taking the UEFA B coaching qualification and has four more hours of practical still remaining before he becomes certified.

"I've done my log book which is the bulk of it, but I have to do one first-aid course and I'm more than halfway through my hours of coaching," he said.

"I've done 10 hours of coaching, which is 10 sessions, and I need to do another four and then get a final assessment on my coaching. I'm hoping to have it by the end of the season.

"With the clubs that I'm dealing with I have to do it after school but daylight is finished at 3.30-4.00. I was at Coventry City until the end of daylight-savings time and once that comes back I will go back to Coventry to do my sessions. I was working with their under 17s and it helped me learn a few things. These are players who, in one or two years' time, you are going to see in Coventry's first team."

Lightbourne played for a number of clubs during his 11 years as a professional in England, but now having retired he is looking to branch out into coaching. Coventry are one of his former clubs while he also still lives in close proximity to Walsall, the club with whom he had a productive spell before joining Coventry.

"I'm hoping to apply for a few jobs to see how that goes," he said. "When I do go back I hope to get hooked up with Walsall at their Centre of Excellence. They have all floodlit (training) grounds and artificial turf. The guy who is helping me out with that is Paul Taylor, who was their general manager."

Lightbourne is open to the idea of facilitating youth teams from Bermuda and having them play in England could open the way for trial opportunities with clubs.

"There are scouts from all over England and it (tour) would give them (players) the opportunity for someone to spot them," said the former Bermuda international.

"Paul Taylor (an agent now) has been in the game for 35 years, and took Walsall from Division Three as general manager and now they are an established First Division team."

Foreign club coaches could also use the company to attend coaching courses in England and "see exactly how the big Premiership coaches do it".

"For instance they could go to Derby County and see how their setup is as far as what the coaching job is, what they have to do as far as the players, how they deal with them and how they put on their sessions," Lightbourne stated.

"They'll be able to go and see the manager's office, where the players train, what happens on match days and throughout the week. It will give people here an idea of how to set their clubs up here on a smaller scale.

"Football breaks would be for anyone who wanted to come over and watch football, not just in England but anywhere in Europe...Holland, Germany, Spain. We're at a stage now where we're having a bit of a stumbling block on tickets from the top games, say Man United versus Arsenal, because they are sold out so far in advance. But games not sold out wouldn't be a problem."

Lightbourne featured in the New Year's Day match at the National Sports Centre which involved past players. And in true Lightbourne style he headed in a late equaliser to help the President's team draw 2-2 draw with the Vice President's team.

He enjoyed playing with and against some of his childhood heroes. Now he wants to give something back to local football in the same way an opportunity was created for him by Mark Trott in 1992 when he had successful trials in England with Scarborough.

"With me being in England, Paul has always been interested in Bermuda," said Lightbourne.

"I've seen one or two players and I enquired about their ages and they look like they stand a chance. Mark Trott helped me out from the beginning and I would like to help someone else out."

Added Lightbourne: "Over the years Paul has always brought players to Walsall from outside of England. Walsall have had players from Cameroon, Sierra Leone, all over Europe and they have been doing it for years.

"That's the only way we can improve as a nation in football, if more people go abroad."

Thinking back to 10 years ago when were in the World Cup, he said: "After that it died off, but it needs to be constant, constant, constant. The national squad looks very young, but as long as they remain patient and believe in what they are doing they will improve.

"For me a healthy sports environment brings a better country."