Friday's Local Hero: Hamilton has been thrust back into the public consciousness this week thanks to the remarkable regenerative properties of football. For Derek Broadley, it is the epicentre of his work in developing the sport.

Hamilton has been thrust back into the public consciousness this week thanks to the remarkable regenerative properties of football. For Derek Broadley, it is the epicentre of his work in developing the sport. However, the Scot is not preaching the game's gospel to the South Lanarkshire masses, but is instead targeting the denizens of the Bermudan capital of the same name.

The 42-year-old was appointed technical director of the Bermudan FA in April and has been charged with raising the profile of the game on the British territory.

With $15m of government funding at his disposal over the next five years, the ambitious administrator has already overseen a rise of 22 places in the FIFA rankings after the national team's fine recent run of form.

"It's going well," admits Broadley, speaking while he watches the national women's team in a pre-season friendly. "It's a fantastic place to live and work and the raw talent is better than in some parts of the UK because they are all athletes. There are no fast food restaurants on the island at all so there is no obesity problem but, because it's an affluent country, the problem is motivation."

With the average one-bedroom apartment costing $1.2m and the rent of Broadley's family home a staggering $7500 a month, instilling the hunger to succeed at sport is a difficult job. But, so far, the decision to appoint the Glaswegian in favour of more high-profile candidates such as John Barnes, Paul Mariner and Rene Simoes, the Brazilian who led Jamaica to the 1998 World Cup finals, has proved fruitful.

Given his own pedigree, that should perhaps come as no surprise. A brief stint behind the scenes at Tottenham Hotspur while studying for a teaching degree in the early 90s led to an opportunity with Crystal Palace, where he became the education welfare officer.

Broadley worked his way up to academy director and travelled the world to sate his thirst for coaching knowledge and was rewarded with graduates including Clinton Morrison, Hayden Mullins and Stephen Hunt, as well as around 30 others still playing professionally.

However, disenchantment with the direction the London club was going culminated in a move to the USA with his American wife, Alison, where a series of coaching clinics caught the attention of the Bermudan Football Foundation and ultimately led to his latest appointment.

It is, though, a long way from his roots. Born in Rutherglen, along with his three sisters, Broadley left Scotland for London when he was three after his father, Tom, was offered a job with the Metropolitan Police. As a consequence, he has developed a disconcerting Cockney accent but opened the conversation by alleviating any concerns.

"Don't worry about the accent - I'm a Scot from top to bottom and love nothing better than seeing England get beat," he insists. "Blue blood runs through my veins and I always made that clear when I was in England, even though I got a lot of stick about it."

The death of his father last year has heightened his feelings for his homeland and he now visits twice a year to visit his mother Sheila, who lives in Carmunnock, and other family members in Rutherglen and Castlemilk. Indeed, returning to work in this country, with his wife and sons Lochlan and Karsten, holds renewed appeal.

"It's always been one of my big ambitions to work in Scotland at some point," he reveals. "There were a few jobs that I'd have loved to have got involved in when I was at Palace but now Scottish clubs are finally taking on board the idea of youth development as being part of the process."

As the holder of a UEFA A license as well as a bulging portfolio of other coaching qualifications, Broadley is determined to improve coach education in Bermuda as the search for the next Clyde Best, Shaun Goater or Kyle Lightbourne continues. While he concedes that badges don't necessarily make a great coach, he insists they can when combined with experience of the professional game.

Parochial rifts that have a tendency to spill over into football have hampered his efforts on the north Atlantic archipelago, but Broadley insists progress is being made.

"I can get these people together and we can work at it, there is enough talent here to be successful," he says, pointing to a couple of youngsters in English academies and Khano Smith, who plays for Steve Nicol's New England Revolution in the MLS. "We've got a franchise in the US, the Bermuda Hogges run by Shaun Goater and Kyle Lightbourne, and we're sending kids and coaches to the US to learn."

With Broadley's commitment to developing Bermudan youngsters, it is clearly not just Hamilton, Scotland that is investing its hope in the talent of tomorrow.