A summer triangular tournament involving three English clubs -- one of them Shaun Goater's Manchester City -- has apparently been scrapped, the Royal Gazette has learned.

However, rumours have also been circulating lately that two clubs, City and Sunderland, may be coming here sometime in July on a pre-season tour, possibly to play each other. On the City website it was mentioned that the club was considering a tour to either Ireland, Bermuda or Barbados, but even manager Joe Royle doesn't know too much about it.

The Royal Gazette first reported in February that plans were in the works to bring in three teams to play in a round robin tournament, with the Bermuda national team possibly being the fourth team.

But yesterday it emerged from the Department of Tourism, who had been assisting from this end, that the tournament has been scrapped.

City have just clinched their return to the English Premiership and with Goater in their team a visit to Bermuda would be enormously popular for both Bermudians and City fans living here. This week Goater has been flooded with calls at his home from Bermudians enquiring about match tickets next season as they look to travel to England to watch him play.

One City fan who would welcome their tour to Bermuda is local resident Brian Crook who is still celebrating the club's second straight promotion. "I came very close to going back for the Blackburn game, but I was only going to go back if everything was decided by then,'' said Crook who travelled to Wembley last year to watch his beloved City beat Gillingham in an exciting Second Division play-off final.

"I don't think I could have gone through the trauma of going back and then (possibly) having to go back a couple of weeks later for the play-offs.''