Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

is one of the biggest sports in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

, along with the sport of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

. The sport was brought to

by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. It is governed by the

Bermuda Football Association The Bermuda Football Association, founded in 1928, is the official football organization in Bermuda and is in charge of the Bermudian national team. The league is also in charge of the sporting leagues on the island. Association staff Leagu ...

(BFA) and is a full-member of FIFA,

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

and the Caribbean Football Union. The BFA organizes the Bermuda national football team. 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

in the early 1900s. In 1928 the national federation, the

, was founded, although it took the federation 34 years before getting affiliation with FIFA and

. 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 Bermuda Hogges were a Bermudian football team based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Founded in 2006, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Mid Atlantic Division of the Eastern ...

which started play in the

USL Second Division The USL Second Division (commonly referred to as USL-2) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL). It was at the third tier of soccer in the United States, behind Major League Soccer (t ...

, the 3rd tier of the United States in 2007. In 2009 the club moved down to the

USL PDL USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

, the 4th tier of the United States. After the 2011 season however the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

s announced the teams for the 2012 season with the Bermuda Hogges not being in the league alignment.

League system

Qualification for CONCACAF competition

The club that wins the Bermuda Premier Division is eligible to enter the preliminary stage of the

CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield The Caribbean Club Shield, also known as the CFU Club Shield, was an annual Caribbean football competition for clubs that were members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). It was a second-tier competition to the Caribbean Club Championship, an ...

National teams

The Bermuda national football team is the national team of Bermuda and is controlled by the

. A member of

, it is not among its strongest teams. They were runners up in the 1967 tournament of the

Pan-American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

, losing to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in the final. However, the side has badly slipped down the FIFA rankings, losing to then non-UEFA members

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

2–0 in the

2007 Island Games The 2007 Island Games were the 12th edition of the Island Games, and were held in Rhodes, Greece, from June 30 to July 6, 2007. Medal count Sports The sports chosen for the games were: See also * Basketball at the 2007 Island Games * Women' ...

in Rhodes.

Notable Bermudan footballers

* Shaun Goater *

Clyde Best Clyde Cyril Best, MBE (born 24 February 1951) is a Bermudian former football player. He was one of the first black players in First Division football in England, scoring 47 goals as a striker for West Ham United between 1968 and 1976. Early ...

Nahki Wells Nahki Michael Wells (born 1 June 1990) is a Bermudian professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Bristol City and the Bermuda national team. Wells began his career in his native Bermuda, playing for Dandy Town Hornets and Berm ...

* David Bascome * Reggie Lambe * Kyle Lightbourne * Andrew Bascome * Osagi Bascome * Dante Leverock

References

{{League systems