Larry Mussenden's seven-year tenure as president of Bermuda Football Association (BFA) came to a grinding halt during the association's Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Young Men's Social Club last night as ex-national coach Richard Calderon blew his rival out of the water in one of the most lopsided victories in recent memory.

Going into the AGM many had predicted the race for the BFA's top post to go right down to the wire. However, last night's battle proved anything but close as Calderon prevailed by a landslide, crushing the incumbent by a sobering 15 to 6 margin as the association's affiliates backed the challenger.

By his own admission, Calderon admitted to being completely flattered by the enormous gulf between himself and Mussenden who discreetly slipped away into the quietness of night a thoroughly humbled man.

"I was surprised by the margin of victory but we believed all along that we were going to win because we had done a lot of work," Calderon told The Royal Gazette following the nearly four hour meeting.

"We put in a whole lot of work and had been campaigning for the past ten months. We met with affiliates, the clubs and coaches. It's been a great deal of conversation between us and the affiliates and we have taken all of this information and compiled it and put it together in what we considered to be a working document that will hopefully lead towards the adjustment or ammendment of the current strategic plan."

Heading into the election Calderon said he was confident he had done enough on the campaign trail to convince the affiliates he was the right man for the job.

"If we would've failed it would not have been for a lack of effort because we really did work hard," he said.

"It was like going into an exam and we knew we were prepared because we done our homework."

He added: "One of the things a lot of the affiliates heard from us was that we are going to be inclusive and not bring stuff to them after the fact.

"We assured them that before we move forward on a any major item they (affiliates) would be at the table to be able to give their input which I think is a difference from the way things have been done thus far. We are just happy we got the victory." After taking victory all in stride, Calderon acknowledged the contributions the outgoing Mussenden had made to the sport during his term in office.

"We are very appreciative of the work Larry and his team have done over the past seven years but we think we can now do something a little different," he said. "Our approach is going to be different; we are going to put more emphasis from the ground up as oppossed to the top down and that, to us, is a significant difference to what I believe is in place now."

During the weeks leading up to last night's election Calderon opted to keep his cards close to his chest as oppossed to slugging it out with the incumbent in the press.

"We didn't want to get in the press and make this a slug fest between two men. Instead we were more inclined to work with the clubs because those are the people who are going to vote," he explained.

When asked what were some of his immediate plans, Calderon replied:

"We are going to do a human and financial resource audit and so the first 30 days in office we want to know exactly what we are working with.

"We want to know what the budget is and of course we are going to have to garner the support of the Minister (Sports Minister El James)."

Meanwhile, also voted in last night on the BFA executive council was Calderon's twin brother Robert, Boulevard Community Club president Stephen Proctor and Wolves Sports Club president Hewvonnie Brown.

Re-elected to the BFA executive were long-serving member Jon Beard, Devonshire Colts president Lee Holder, Mark Trott, Troy Brimmer, Shaquita Parsons and Anthony Francis. Ousted were Fred (Pinks) Lewis and Lloyd Smith.

Devonshire Colts coach Ray Jones ran unoppossed for the vacant BFA treasurer's post, while Gregory Grimes was unchallenged for the second vice-president's post.

Earlier this month BFA executives Charles Clarke (referee committee chairman) and Andrew Griffith (treasurer) resigned due to "work and personal commitments".