Bermuda Football Association president Neville Tyrrell yesterday admitted that some things could have been done better in the national team's disappointing World Cup campaign.

In the long-awaited first official comment from soccer's governing body since the national team were eliminated by Antigua more than six weeks ago, Tyrrell also said many players were unavailable for selection because of a drug problem.

Tyrrell said: "We accept that we may have taken a few things for granted based on the circumstances.'' He went on to say players felt BFA officials should have attended more training sessions and that perhaps someone should have been sent ahead of the squad to the BVI and Antigua to iron out potential problems ahead of the team's arrival.

But Tyrrell was unapologetic about the association's tendency to keep the public in the dark by their reluctance to speak publicly about events surrounding the campaign and frequently attacked the media during his eight-page statement.

"It is most unfortunate that matters relating to decisions made by the Executive Committee over the last few months were played out in the media,'' Tyrrell told reporters at the Ministry of Youth and Sport board room.

"Again, we make no apologies for not involving ourselves in these media debates. Our stance is never to discredit anyone associated with football either directly or indirectly. We see no value in doing that as football belongs to no-one.'' Later in his statement, Tyrrell said: "We even had some of the media discussing the Bermuda team and our programme as if they were the opposition.

Not once did it come across as if this was Bermuda's team.'' When asked to expand on this in a question-and-answer session, Tyrell said: "It appeared that the media had some agenda that I certainly don't think gelled with what I would call a national spirit.

"It was as if we were always distracting from what I think should be a common interest of `it's a Bermuda team'.

"Despite the fact there were problems associated with the football and I'm not saying the media should not print what I would call lapses in football but at the same time I would have thought there would have been a lot more support. This was Bermuda's team. This was not the BFA's team.'' In his statement, Tyrrell also targeted some Island soccer fans for their negative attitudes.

"While other countries such as the USA pour millions of dollars into their football programme and their fans support them because it is the patriotic thing to do, we get personal and decide to stay away from the turnstiles because we don't like the people in the BFA,'' said Tyrrell.

"What hypocrisy! We have become so negative we say ridiculous things like, `I love football but I'm not paying to watch the national team' or `I'm not paying to go to the National Stadium'.'' "We even heard people shouting in the stands, `come on BVI, come on Antigua'.

And the verbal abuse directed against our coaches on the benches was deplorable.'' The president touched upon the problem of drugs in soccer, when he said: "It is grossly unfair that the coaches should be criticised for the non-involvement of certain local players.

"Along with the coaches, we reviewed a list of players who could have assisted the team. The sad reality is that those players whom persons felt should have been in the team had issues that made them unavailable to represent Bermuda.

"The primary reason surrounded illicit drug use, failing the drug test or failing to show for a drug test. Other reasons not readily known to the public were injuries, work-related issues and family commitments, all of which were understandable and excusable.

"It is no doubt in our minds and certainly in the minds of the coaches that those players on the sidelines could have assisted our team.'' National team coaches Robert Calderon, Clyde Best and Mark Trott earned praise from Tyrrell for doing `the best job they could with the resources available'.

Tyrrell went on to say that some in the association had argued that players should be paid full-time or part-time to leave their jobs during the World Cup campaign, but there were no available funds.

And he explained that the well-publicised $1-million grant from world soccer governing body FIFA was not in the BFA coffers. The allowance, he said, was $250,000 per year over four years.

The administrative side of the BFA suffered scathing criticism from some national team players in the week after the World Cup exit, including goalkeeper Dwayne Adams and captain Shannon Burgess. Burgess even questioned whether elimination had been what BFA officials had wanted, such had been their lack of contact with the players.

Tyrrell believed Burgess was of a different opinion now, thanks to what he heard in a meeting of players, BFA officials, affiliates and coaches.

"I believe there was some miscommunication,'' said Tyrrell. "Shannon Burgess was one of the players that was in that meeting with us and when he understood how things went, if he had to rewrite that article today, he would probably write it slightly different.'' Tyrrell also said he had no regrets about being absent from three of Bermuda's matches in the World Cup. "I could not have put the ball in the net,'' he said.

Tyrrell defends BFA From Page 19 He said he had been called up as a match commissioner by FIFA on two of the match days and added: "I don't think people should fault me for not being at a match, because I can assure you, whenever Neville Tyrrell is available to be at a national match, or even domestic matches, he is there.'' Tyrrell admitted the BFA had turned down a request to send someone to Antigua in advance of the squad. Problems arose as a result -- the team arrived late at night to find no food available at their hotel and were given poor fields to train on.

"You never know what to expect,'' said Tyrrell. "We have gone to what I would have considered third world countries the day before the match and everything has been great. There are countries you would consider not third world countries and expect everything to be right and it's not.

"If that request was made -- and denied -- it was probably in the scope of timing. Appointments of delegations are made weeks in advance. I can't just ask someone to go at a day's notice. We don't all have that flexibility. So I don't want to say the request was denied without saying why and being very specific.'' Better late than never: BFA president Neville Tyrrell (centre) breaks his silence on Bermuda's World Cup flop to reporters in the Department of Youth and Sports board room, flanked by first vice-president Aldwin Savery (right) and second vice-president Elroy Ratteray (left).