When the new soccer season began last night Richard Thompson was still in charge of Bermuda Football Association -- but recent steps taken by his executive committee must have him wondering just how much longer he can hang onto his beleaguered presidency.

The Royal Gazette has learned that on September 16, three days before the annual general meeting was to have finally concluded, executive members, supposedly Thompson's closest allies, reached a decision that they would all resign at the September 19 meeting at Social Club.

Procedural problems, however, and a move by affiliates eventually resulted in executive members hanging onto their jobs. Although it's unclear, all signs point to Thompson orchestrating behind-the-scenes moves so he could keep the presidency.

Meanwhile, manoeuvring on Thompson's part may have opened the door for continuation of an unsettled state of affairs at the highest echelons of the BFA.

Thompson did not attend the meeting of September 16, but a majority of the executives were there and a decision was taken for them to resign en masse three nights later.

They all agreed that there was overwhelming disapproval of the direction the BFA was taking -- everything from the handling of the Miami Seven drugs scandal, indecision about whether the national team would compete in Olympic qualifying and a mushrooming budget deficit of almost $70,000.

That, plus other matters, has thrown Thompson's leadership into tumult since January.

Three members who were not present at the clandestine meeting were directors Fred Lewis, Elroy Ratteray and club representative Gladwyn Bean. Ratteray was overseas while Bean apparently had not been properly notified.

Nine members of the executive were reportedly in attendance.

While there was no vote taken, the consensus among members was that things were not progressing smoothly in local soccer on the administrative level and that immediate steps were required to rectify a growing mountain of problems.

Executives went so far as to question their own administrative abilities -- in addition to Thompson's.

All concerns, combined with the fact that there was a strong belief that the president was unable to get the respect of the business community in order to obtain much-needed sponsorship to assist in the development of programmes, influenced the members to make the unprecedented move.

But before the matter could be brought up at the AGM an official from an affiliate club, who had obviously been briefed on the committee's intentions prior to the meeting, perhaps by Thompson, took the floor and stated how he understood that there was "unrest among the affiliates''.

Related discussions that followed eventually saw the affiliates persuade the executives to hold on to their positions and "persevere for the betterment of Island soccer''.

"Things just didn't materialise as it was supposed to,'' one irate executive committee member said later. "Everybody was supposed to resign, it was as simple as that. A decision was made on the Saturday and we were all supposed to have resigned to leave it to the affiliates to settle.'' Contrary to reports following the AGM, the executive committee never offered to resign and were never given a vote of confidence by the affiliates. "It didn't happen that way,'' said one member, contradicting BFA general secretary David Sabir. Sabir at the time said Thompson was given an overwhelming vote of confidence.

Added the executive member: "The BFA didn't get a vote of confidence, neither did anybody attempt to resign at the AGM. The chain of events during those few days were simply mind-boggling and as a result many were left somewhat confused by it all.'' Essentially, Thompson had been on the outside looking in during the developments prior to the AGM and it remains uncertain whether he was officially invited to the meeting.

One source said work commitments prevented Thompson from attending the meeting while at least one executive suggested other circumstances contributed to his absence.

But Nelson Bascome, current PLP Shadow Minister of Sport who recently resigned his directorship at Devonshire Rec. because of a perceived conflict of interest in his new political job, didn't hide his interpretation of the developments.

"We were directed by a senior executive that (Thompson) had been informed and chose not to attend the meeting,'' said Bascome. "The executives looked at that decision and were disgruntled.

"During the afternoon of September 16 I bumped into Thompson, who said he hadn't called for the meeting, and basically said that there seemed to be some forces working against the executive.'' RICHARD THOMPSON -- didn't attend September 16 meeting