Bahamas' Bruce Swan: "I want the story of football in The Bahamas to be about more than playing"

Bruce Swan, Technical Director for The Bahamas Football Association (BFA) wants to write a 'new story' for football across the islands and ensure the game becomes the first-choice sport for every child and a vehicle for 'long-term friendship, recreation and education'.

"I want the story to be that football is more than playing: it's about a love of sport, friendship and building relationships," explains Swan, who was appointed as Technical Director of the BFA in March 2022 and oversees national teams, player and coach pathways and the women's football strategy as part of his role.

"And I want that connection to be long-term and lifelong. So, it's not just football to play a competition, but football to create friendships and for social recreation." 

Unlike in his native Grenada, Swan, who has been involved in playing and coaching in his homeland for over 20 years, doesn't see kids playing in the fields of the Bahamas. 

"When you drive by the fields in Grenada you see kids playing but I don't see that in the Bahamas," says Swan who represented his national team at U15 level. "We want to make football the first-choice sport of every kid in every community in The Bahamas. Every evening when they go out, we want them to take a football and go to the park and just play. This vision really excites me." 

To successfully spread the message of football to every community in The Bahamas, a number of geographical and logistical challenges need to be solved, says Swan.

"The biggest challenge I have is bringing football to all the communities on all the islands in the Bahamas," he says. "But movement between those islands can be difficult. You have to take planes or take a boat. Sometimes to get from one part of an island to another you might have to fly back to the city on the main island, which is Nassau, to get to another part.

"So, it can be complicated and expensive. The challenge is just putting that work together and being able to be precise of how do we move from one island to the next and ensure that they get access to the development plan that is required for them."

If Swan can help the BFA overcome the geographical challenges, he wants to use schools' football as the platform to spark an enthusiasm for the game amongst all young people.  

"Several of the islands would love to play football and there are good structures within the school system that we can tap into," he explains. "So, I would love to use the schools to help bring football to the various communities across all the islands."

'Selling the story of the game' to key partners and stakeholders is a key part of the approach, says Swan.

"First of all, we need to have a strong relationship with the ministry for education and have them buy into what we want to do and see how it fits with what they want to do. Because the relationship should always be two-way.

"The next part of it is to get the buy in of the principals of the schools, the associations, and work with the principals and sell our 'story'. The story needs to clearly tell them how football would benefit the school and how we could benefit the kids. We want our school programme to help deal with obesity and highlight the health and behaviour benefits kids can experience by being involved in football."

Education is a sector Swan knows well. His first professional role was as a classroom teacher and sports co-ordinator, a position he stayed in for over a decade. It means he knows first-hand about the transformative impact inspirational PE teachers can have on the lives of children. 

"Within the school system we know that the physical education teacher has a great impact on the lives of the kids at that moment in time," explains Swan.

"Kids often favour the PE teacher more than they favour their class teacher. So, want to use that and show schools how football can help in developing positive relationships with pupils and lead to having better kids in school. 

"First, we would work with the school principals and then we would work with the teachers responsible for football and help them with training and give them a plan to follow when they are out there with the kids. 

"Then the last part of it is to invite the local clubs in to build those relationships within the schools, so the clubs can use the schools as a feeder programme into their teams."