Technical director Derek Broadley has been heavily criticised by several BFA honorary vice-presidents who have accused him of 'losing the trust' of the association's player development committee.

In an advertisement taken out in yesterday's

Royal Gazette, several of local football's old guard questioned Broadley's 'ability to deliver' while staunchly defending the regime of former president Richard Calderon.

Broadley, who plans to leave the Island in March when his contract expires, said recently that the player development committee had been 'urgently reviewing programmes before they had been given time to bed-in'.

That claim was strongly disputed yesterday by six of Calderon's supporters in a lengthy advertisement, which read: "It was reported that the player development committee stopped believing in the strategic plan. They never lost faith in the plan but ceased trusting in the technical director's ability to deliver."

The advertisement, entitled 'Distortion of Facts: A Story without facts is simply fiction' was a response to

Gazette Sports Editor Adrian Robson's Friday Forum which criticised Calderon's last-ditch attempts to hire Jacques Crevoisier as a part-time technical consultant to replace Broadley.

It is understood the new Larry Mussenden and his committee are desperately trying to wriggle out of the Crevoisier deal which would see him visit the Island for ten days twice a year, pocketing $122,000 per annum over a three-year period.

Attributed to Leroy (Nibs) Lewis, Ellsworth Christopher, Clyde Best, Alfie Eve, David Furbert and Carlton (Pepe) Dill, the advertisement claims the new regime would benefit from the 'world class coaching' of Crevoisier who would provide a 'programme as such to wean ourselves off foreign expertise and have Bermudians trained and prepared to coach our own.'

Mussenden is known to be annoyed by Calderon's controversial final act as president and criticised the appointment of Crevoisier when he replaced the ex-president earlier this month.

"When you have stated your intention to leave you should really maintain the status quo," Mussenden said. "You should perhaps not enter into a pile of contracts which bind the next association."

Calderon's sympathisers have also poured scorn on Broadley's claim that he was unable to speak to the ex-president, leaving the ex-Crystal Palace academy director 'perplexed' by the disintegration of their working relationship.

The advertisement continued: "An additional report stated the technical director and the president were no longer on speaking terms. This is untrue. The technical director answers to the player development committee and had regular and complete access to its chairman and committee members."

A BFA source has questioned the validity of that claim, though, pointing out: "Can you imagine at a professional football club where it's normal for a coach and chairman not to speak for six months?"

The six former coaches and, or, BFA administrators said they were compelled to respond to Adrian Robson's Friday Forum, which was headlined 'Calderon's timing shamefully wrong' because they argue it 'distorted the facts'.

Yesterday, Robson stood by his comments and said he would be replying to the advertisement in this week's Friday Forum.

He said: "It seems the half-dozen complainants have ignored the fact that the column focused on the shameful decision by BFA president Richard Calderon and his executive to undermine the current executive by completing a deal with coach Jacques Crevoisier just hours before the Annual General Meeting.

"As a result, new president Larry Mussenden and his committee have been forced to employ Crevoisier against their wishes and it's understood that negotiations are underway to reverse the decision made by the past executive.

"The advertisement is clearly an attempt to mislead the public. I will be replying in this week's Friday column."