Disgraced Bermuda player Kris Frick has been slapped with a five-year ban from international football for going AWOL while representing his country at the Digicel Caribbean Cup, Bermuda Football Association (BFA) announced yesterday.

The 19-year-old defender has also been prevented from playing domestic football for a two-year period as further punishment for walking out on his team-mates in the midst of their campaign in the Cayman Islands.

During a BFA executive meeting earlier this week, the association imposed heavy punishment on the Somerset Trojans player who refused to sit on the bench in Bermuda's recent clash with St.Martin after taking into consideration submitted reports and circumstances surrounding Frick's bizarre behaviour.

Both bans are effective immediately and according to BFA president Larry Mussenden reflect the "serious nature of Frick's transgressions".

Speaking to The Royal Gazette yesterday, Mussenden said: "The executive considered the official team reports in the matter involving Kris Frick which was deemed to have been serious.

"It involved a player who was representing Bermuda who refused to suit up for the match and then left the team's hotel and left the country under his own arrangements.

"We discourage that kind of behaviour and regard it as one of the most serious actions a player can do when representing Bermuda.

"There are a number of people who would've wanted to be in the squad (Digicel) to represent the country. And so we frown at that kind of behaviour." It was recently revealed in this newspaper that the teenager had committed a similar offence last July when he walked out on the Under-20 national squad after being overlooked for the captaincy - just 48 hours before the squad was due to depart for World Cup qualifiers in the Cayman Islands.

Frick is now the second local footballer to have refused to suit up while on national team duty in the past two years. Boulevard striker Angelo Simmons was banned last year after refusing to suit up for Bermuda's Under-23 squad in Greece.

"There has been some precedence before where a player took a similar course and that player was also dealt with by the BFA executive," Mussenden continued.

However, in this case (Frick's) the incident happened at the senior national level which we consider to be the guiding light of all football in Bermuda and expect that those players will be role models for all players in Bermuda that strive to represent their country - and not just in the sport of football but all sports in Bermuda.

"Behaviour such as this certainly sends the wrong message for a player to act arbitrarily like this.

"In any event, we trust that Kris Frick will reflect on the decision that he made and view time wisely.

"On behalf of the executive, I would like to express my thanks to the team officials and the senior players on the team who tried to coax and encourage Kris Frick to remain with the team and play his part.

"I would also like to commend the team that had to play on while Kris Frick decamped from the tour."