Bermuda's national football team departed from the World Cup qualifying competition on Sunday with their pride intact, even though all of the players will no doubt look back at what might have been.

If players like Shaun Goater and Kyle Lightbourne had been healthy ... if captain Kentoine Jennings had not been sent off ... Bermuda might just have pulled off a stunning upset.

Still, the players, most of them amateurs, cannot be faulted for their effort and teamwork. They raised their game to a higher level as they played El Salvador, a country the size of Massachusetts with a population of 6 million. The players represented Bermuda well and the whole Island should be proud of them.

Now the Bermuda Football Association needs to use this campaign as a foundation for the future, especially since many of the players in the national squad will still be around in 2008.

Twelve years ago Bermuda made a similar run in the World Cup, but the national programme then fell apart. Bermuda should not make the same mistake again.

This will require money, both from the BFA's own coffers and from sponsors. To accomplish that, the BFA needs to show that it has its own financial house in order and is efficient and well organised. If it can do that, then the rest of the money will come.