Association administrative assistant Joe L. Brown, according to president Charlie Marshall.

Marshall responded yesterday to reports that he and Brown were at constant loggerheads and simply did not get along, but said he was unable to answer the question as to `why' in his mind Brown was sacked.

"Soccer in this country is a lot bigger than any individuals,'' said Marshall. "The reality of the situation is competency not personality with the running of the association. The association has got to be run properly.'' Marshall denied that Brown's allegedly changing the locks to his office door was the primary reason for his dismissal.

"That (locks) was just one of a number of issues reported to the committee.'' He also denied that there was deep-seated animosity from the FIFA Referees List incident four years ago when he and senior official Rex Osborne were overlooked because they did not take a physical. Osborne was later reinstated but now is off the list because of the age restriction (45). Brown was held at fault.

"I had forgetten about that,'' Marshall said. "Life's too short to worry about things like that.'' Nevertheless, he added, "That's a typical example of incompetency.'' Marshall handed over the day-to-day duties of the presidency to first vice-president Richard Thompson while the directors completed an internal investigation into the administrative state of affairs.

"I wrote concerns to the executive committee and they turned it over to the directors,'' said Marshall. "They commenced an investigation, which has been going on for over a year now. There's no truth at all (that events were preconceived). There are a number of things on record.'' After taking over from Donald Dane in November 1991, Marshall had certain changes he wanted to put into effect. But Bermuda's World Cup drive made it impossible for a move such as this recent one -- especially as Brown was critically involved on the administrative side of the campaign.

Nevertheless, Marshall refuted Brown's claims that the two never met over BFA business. "Right from the beginning I met with Brown and laid out plans,'' said the president.'' Once Bermuda's World Cup involvement was over, things started to heat up.

First came national coach Gary Darrell's resignation. Then, Brown retained lawyer Richard Hector weeks later when plans for his ouster became more evident.

Marshall said he is not worried about the threat of a lawsuit for unfair dismissal and added that what is important is that the association and soccer go forward and the officers do the job they have been elected to do.

Any forthcoming suit can open a whole new can of worms. "There's not just me but other things as well going on within the association,'' said Marshall.