FIFA Rankings: Bermuda Up Two Spots
Bermuda has moved up two places and are now 107th in the latest rankings released earlier this week by FIFA – the world governing body of football.
Bermuda has continued to climb up the rankings after starting the year off at 172nd. Last month Bermuda jumped up to 109th place, after being ranked 132nd in October 2011.
In September 201l, Bermuda was in 189th place, and in August 2011 Bermuda was in 185th place.
Congrats Bermuda. Lets keep the momentum going and schedule more games. History has it that Bermuda would do good but then go dormant for long spells and then fall back down the FIFA rankings becuase of lack of games.
Lack of Bermudian fan support is a direct result of the lack of games you refer to.
In the past several years the following teams have visited our shores with luke warm responses from the fans:
*Santos FC -Brazils top club
*LA Galaxy– a top MLS club
*New England Revolution-the then #2 team in the MLS
*Trinidad & Tobago’s U-21 National team who had prior to visiting Bda competed in the U-20 World Cup
And you guessed it, the organizers took a bath in each case.
Add,the following top youth teams:
*West Ham United academy–EPL
*St.Etienne acdademy (French Ligue 1)
*FC Sochaux academy– (French Ligue 1)
*Colorado Rapids academy–MLS
And guess what—only a few hundred attended the tournaments
I would understand if the level of competiton wasn’t at a high level. I would equally unsderstand if the names of the clubs didn’t resonate in Bermuda, but they are all top clubs and when one doesn’t support Santos than I rest my case. Clealry there is a lack of undersatnding of the cost associated with bringing in these teams and same can be applied to outgoing tours. THEY ARE EXTREMELY expensive!
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@ The FACT–how do you propose that the BFA pay for these games that you suggest are important? Should Bermuda fly to the Caribbean and spend nothing less than $60,000? Should they import top Caribbean teams when on the evidence of recent history they can’t get more a than a few thousand to support the effort. I think the BFA would be keen to hear your proposal as you may offer something that has not been considered as yet. Keep in mind that the BFA’s budget is now back to pre 2006 levels. And by the way, the Sports writer at one of our local papers once again offered inaccurate information when stating that the BFA received $15 milliom from the GOB. In fact that figure was approximately HALF or $7.5million, over the past 5 years. It seems that this must be a kind of British Tabloid journalism where the thinking is that if you repeatedly tell a story, even if it is totally wrong ,somehow people will eventually accept it as fact. Sad–no, pathetic.