Bermudian football

I thought it was time I gave you some insight to football played in Bermuda. Bermudians are football crazy although most keep their passions for Saturday morning’s in Docksiders, or my preference the Robin Hood to watch live games on the television. You can’t move in there for Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool shirts and like every overseas outpost, one can find every weekend Premier League game on show somewhere.

However around the island 3 leagues of amateur football is played during what on the island is laughably called winter! Bermuda Hogges are the island’s semi-pro team that play in the  USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Pyramid. Kyle Lightbourne, ex of Stoke and Walsall amongst others is the manager and the PDL is played out in the summer but the Hogges, established to help develop young players, has sadly failed to catch the imagination here.

The Bermudian Football Association (BFA) oversee the Premier League and 1st Division which has automatic promotion and relegation, whilst the independent Corona Extra Football League, came out of a restructuring by the BFA 3 years ago.

The Corona League with 10 teams is very competitive and all games are played at one ground in the capital Hamilton over the course of a weekend. The league has attracted quite a lot of spectators and playing ex-pats, something the BFA’s league has been accused of excluding. Current champions and Cup winners are the quaintly named Tuff Dogs.

When the BFA jettisoned the previous incarnation of the Corona League ex technical director Derek Broadley suggested it was a “selfish league that gave nothing back to the game.” Anyway it seems to be doing pretty well without the support of the BFA and rumours were that the Corona League teams were going to be invited into this year’s BFA Cup.

The Premier League has 10 teams in it and the 1st Division oddly 11. The Dandy Town Hornets are the current champions regaining the title from Shaun Goater’s North Village last season but they have had a rough start and sit currently 2nd bottom.

Devonshire Cougars are top after 3 games ahead of promoted Flanagans Onions, a team rare in that they are predominately made up of ex-pats. The Onions was always a pub team before being inherited by Flanagans, an Irish pub in the heart of Front Street with an excellent sports bar out the back, and therefore called the Outback.

The Onions play their games at BAA Field in Hamilton, home to the inimitable Bermuda Athletic Association Wanderers, which is where playing indoors my footballing career ended after tearing my knee ligaments in 2009. Talking of pub sides the Robin Hood also runs a team which is in the Premier League. Backed by long time supporter of Bermudian Football Paul Scope who moved here from the UK in 1983, the ‘Hood’ who also share BAA Field but currently sit bottom. Scope also pretty much self-finances the Hogges exploits in the US.

A lot of the stadiums, and I use that word loosely, are shared. The Cougars and Wolves SC both play in Devonshire next to the National Sports Centre. Somerset Trojans play out on the west side of the island at the famed Somerset Cricket Club whilst at the other end of the island St George’s Colts play at the equally famous Wellington Oval. Both stadiums are alternate venues for the celebrated Bermuda Cup Match weekend.

Playing at Bernard Park Field in Hamilton, North Village Rams have my mate in goal. Once many moons ago the national keeper. At the age of 40 he was recently called out of retirement. I suppose when Shaun Goater comes calling, what else can you say? Goater  played for North Village before he moved to Man Utd in 1989. That one sentence right there I am sure keeps every single Bermudian footballer dreaming!

Then in Southampton, which is the parish I live in two teams play at Southampton Rangers Field. Rangers themselves and PHC Zebras. Southampton Rangers are as the crow flies my local team, but I don’t feel any attachment to them, little can be found online and there has been a couple of minor drug gang related incidents at games in the past couple of years that have made them news on the front page and not the back. It doesn’t encourage my patronage.

The winners of the Bermudian Premier League enter the Carribbean Football Union (CFU) Champions Cup. No Bermuda team has ever made it past the 1st Round. Caledonia AIA from the Trinidad and Tobago are the current CFU Club Champions.

So where have I got to, oh yes I guess I need to pick a team to follow. I’m going to plump for the Flanagan Onions, riding high in the Premier League after promotion last season. the decent pint, I think the only pint, of Kilkenny available on the island can also be found in Flanagan’s, which helped make my decision!