Newly re-elected Bermuda Football Association president Neville Tyrrell longs for a return to the days when football matches attracted entire families.

However, rather than commiserate, the BFA's top man aims to once again make the local game appealing to young and old.

"I certainly would like to see us getting back to the family atmosphere,'' said Tyrrell, who held on to power by the most slender of margins during Monday's elections at Young Men's Social Club. "The affiliates recognise that unless we `clean up our act' -- if I can use that term -- we are going to keep driving away those people that do want to come out to football.

"And families want to come out.'' The key, he believes, will be erasing the perception that soccer is a magnet for drugs and violence, although Bermuda hardly compares to England and the rest of Europe, where hooliganism is a rampant problem.

Tyrrell intimated that much of the picture presented was one fictionalised and sensationalised by the media.

"Because we're small it's a big issue and those are the things we have to look at,'' said Tyrrell. "We have to look at the infrastructure of our clubs that make it conducive to people to want to come back and participate in our sport.

"The desire is there, I know. I've been up and down this country now for the last 12 months and people are excited about football, they want to come out, (but) we've got to do what we have to do.

"I told the affiliates inside, that I would certainly say as a result of the vote itself, our house needs to be put in order.'' Yet there was sadness expressed by the president with regard to one departing family member. The defeat of Elroy Ratteray at the hands of Mark Trott in the vice-presidential race meant that Tyrrell was robbed of a prime supporter and diligent worker.

Ratteray appeared to fall victim to a sympathy vote following Trott's failure to win the top spot.

"Elroy was one of the first people I thanked when I got back up there,'' said Tyrrell. "Because Elroy and I have been on the Association a very long time together.

"I know Elroy's strengths and I'm going to miss him. I hope that there's another Elroy type on this executive who will carry the work that he did.''