Football in Bermuda
Association football is one of the biggest sports in Bermuda, along with the sport of cricket.
The sport was brought to Bermuda by the British. It is governed by the Bermuda Football Association (BFA) and is a full-member of FIFA, CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union. The BFA organizes the Bermuda national football team. Despite the small size of the island, they have traditionally punched above their weight.
Today Bermuda's top domestic league is the Bermudian Premier Division.
History of Bermudian football
The game of football was brought to the island by British in the early 1900s. In 1928 the national federation, the Bermuda Football Association, was founded, although it took the federation 34 years before getting affiliation with FIFA and CONCACAF.
In 1963 the federation started the Bermudian Premier Division which is to be the top division of Bermudan Football and still is today. In 2006 the BFA started a new professional club known as the Bermuda Hogges which started play in the USL Second Division, the 3rd tier of the United States in 2007. In 2009 the club moved down to the USL PDL, the 4th tier of the United States. After the 2011 season however the United Soccer Leagues announced the teams for the 2012 season with the Bermuda Hogges not being in the league alignment.
League system
| Level | League(s)/Division(s) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Premier League 10 clubs | |||||||||||
| ↓↑ 2 clubs | ||||||||||||
| 2 | First Division 10 clubs | |||||||||||
Qualification for CONCACAF competition
The club that wins the Bermuda Premier Division enters the preliminary stage of the CFU Club Championship.
| Competition | Who Qualifies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CFU Club Championship | Club finishing 1st in the Premier Division | Don't qualify directly, start in the preliminary stage |
National teams
The Bermuda national football team is the national team of Bermuda and is controlled by the Bermuda Football Association. A member of CONCACAF, it is not among its strongest teams.
They were runners up in the 1967 tournament of the Pan-American Games, losing to Mexico in the final.
However, the side has badly slipped down the FIFA rankings, losing to non-UEFA members such as Gibraltar 2–0 in the 2007 Island Games in Rhodes.[1]
Notable Bermudan Footballers
References
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