had been misled by Bermuda Football Association as to the continuance of Kenny Thompson as their coach.

A faxed press release by captain Jason Williams, Dion Stovell, Calvin Augustus, JacQui Simons and Damon Swan -- Domico Coddington's name was affixed but unsigned -- expressed disappointment at the reassignment of Thompson to another age group. Thompson was recently posted as the Under-15 national coach, while Dennis Brown and Ray Jones were awarded the Under-18 squad, of which the six players will be members.

"We were led to believe that we were going to be allowed to stick together under coach Kenny Thompson and that we would eventually become the Under-19 team,'' read the statement, which was sent from CedarBridge Academy. "It has now become apparent that Mr. Thompson is not going to be allowed to keep us together and to continue to develop our skills.

"We have been together for the past three years and we were looking forward to our future under the direction of Mr. Thompson. Now we are uncertain what our future will be. We believe that the camaraderie built over the last three years will change with new coaches.'' Coaching Committee chairman Jon Beard said that, while he understood the arguments presented by the six, there remained a need for them to take the lessons learned to the next level.

He added that he would still have to discuss matters further with the coaching committee and the executive, but he strongly disagreed with players and guardians meddling in the issues of coaching appointments.

"Personally, I don't believe that you can actually have a situation where parents and players are dictating who's going to be coaching what, where and when. It has to come from the Bermuda Football Association,'' said Beard. "I appreciate that they enjoyed their coaching under Kenny, but they've all got to be able to move on and build on what they've learned.

"As much as I appreciate and understand that they have an extremely good relationship with their coach, I think there could have been a better way of expressing this other than going to the press ... as much as I appreciate the power of the fourth estate.

"I think there's one or two things here in the letter that concern me somewhat, in that it states that `We were led to believe that we were going to be allowed to stick together'. That certainly did not come from the Football Association, so I don't know where they got this belief from.''