Dear Sir,

It can be one of the defining questions of a leader's career. When do you stand up and take the bullet for a strategy gone wrong and when do you duck your head and let others take the fall.

It seems that Kenny Thompson and Derek Broadley had the wrong answer after Bermuda's 4-0 loss to Antigua. As important, where is the BFA president and his team. Quotes are abundant from this crew when things go right, but apparently in short supply in times like these.

Rather than continue with the blame game or run for cover, wouldn't it be better to ask themselves "what can we do to prevent this from happening again?" Instead of blaming the players or hiding until this failure exits the minds of our football family, shouldn't they be digging deep (and they only need to scratch the surface) and determine what went wrong and how can they prevent this from happening again?" (Yes, worth repeating again!)

It really is quite simple actually.

(1) The BFA executive failed to properly negotiate the terms and conditions for accepting the Hogges into the BFA family.

(2) The BFA didn't properly plan out their calendar of events for the past two years. One could go as far as stating that they didn't plan at all.

(3) The BFA executive fail to recognise that players are the most important product and that the BFA are there to serve the players.

(4) The BFA executive need to end their insatiable appetite for all things FIFA and CONCACAF and place Bermuda and our domestic programme at the top of their list of priorities.

I ask that you consider the following in the context of the above and then ask yourselves if the BFA have been leaders in this process:

The domestic, national and Hogges programmes are heavily reliant (based on team sheets over the past 24 months) on a small squad of players. These same players play in the domestic programme with their respective teams in a season that starts (pre-season) in August and runs through April/May.

The Hogges start their pre-season in late March and their season starts in April and runs through August.

The national team have been involved in many 'friendlies' and most recently the World Cup campaign, over the past 24 months. There was a period in July, 2008 that this small nucleus of players played three games in 10 days for the Hogges (in the United States), returned to join the national team preparations and travelled to Trinidad and Tobago for a World Cup match and then the following week for the return fixture. In between, they had to tend to wives, girlfriends, children, jobs, pay bills etc etc..

I think that by now you get the point; these players are physically, mentally and emotionally whipped. And after this gruelling schedule with no breaks over the past 24 months, some were questioned about their commitment to football ¿ really!

And blamed for this loss against Antigua.

When the BFA executive start treating players as the number one reason for why they exist in this sport; when the BFA start planning like strategists; when the BFA start focusing on Bermuda first and not their endless trips around the world that only benefits them not the sport; then and only then will we start seeing REAL results on and off the playing field.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT