Bermuda Football Association president Larry Mussenden has launched a scathing attack on The Royal Gazette, and in particular senior sports reporter Colin Thompson, following yesterday's story in this newspaper which claimed the new national team's assistant coach, Keith Tabatznik, was employed without approval from the BFA's executive committee.

Acting on information provided by three sources within the BFA, the story claimed that high-ranking officials within football's governing body were not informed that Tabatznik, the former Georgetown University coach, had been brought in or was even on the Island.

However, when contacted yesterday, the same sources who told Thompson on Monday that the appointment had not been "rubber-stamped" by the BFA's executive committee, said they may have been mistaken.

No official announcement of Tabatznik's appointment was made until The Gazette contacted Mussenden on Monday, although it's believed the new coach, who will work alongside another assistant coach Kenny Thompson and head coach Keith Tucker, arrived late last week and was introduced to the players over the weekend.

When asked by this newspaper yesterday, Mussenden refused to release the minutes of the meeting at which Tabatznik's employment was approved.

He also declined to release any portion of the minutes which would confirm the approval.

One of those sources said on Monday: "As far as I know nothing has been approved by the executive which is the normal process."

Yesterday Mussenden lambasted Monday's story saying: "The Royal Gazette should apologise for such shoddy, amateurish and careless reporting in the context of 'a lack of executive approval'.

His full statement read as follows:

"As president of the BFA, I wish to address the untrue statement in The Royal Gazette today, attributed to a "BFA source", that assistant coach Keith Tabatznik was hired as an assistant coach 'without the consent of the BFA Executive'.

"The Technical Committee supported the request to appoint Tabatznik and that recommendation was put to the BFA executive. The BFA executive decided at its meeting on 20 February, 2008 that Tabatznik be appointed on the short term basis that he has been appointed.

"Additionally, the reporter Colin Thompson never put any issue of lack of executive consent to me. That issue was never raised by reporter Colin Thompson. It follows that in the context of executive approval, I never 'insisted that the appointment was completed in the correct fashion'.

"For clarification, the reporter Colin Thompson asked me about a work permit and I stated that Immigration approval was granted for the appointment. The Royal Gazette should apologise for such shoddy, amateurish and careless reporting in the context of 'a lack of executive approval'. "

Thompson maintains he did ask Mussenden if the appointment had been approved.

The statement continued: "The BFA wish to point out that the "BFA source", whoever that is, is a complete and utter liar who The Royal Gazette has relied upon for numerous incorrect and inaccurate stories.

"Had The Royal Gazette chosen to confirm the story about a lack of executive approval they would never have printed the story or found the source to be credible.

"The standard of reporting by reporter Colin Thompson is shocking, below the basic standards of reporting.

"We challenge The Royal Gazette to confirm that they had two sources that could confirm what they have specifically alleged. If they have two such sources, then they also have two proven liars as their sources. Readers shouldn't trust such 'sources', reporters or articles."

Royal Gazette Editor Bill Zuill said: "Newspapers traditionally rely on confidential sources both for information and for confirmation of stories, and it is vital in these instances to not only have more than one source, but to speak to sources who are reliable. I am satisfied that Colin Thompson did all of that in this case and that the people he spoke with were both in positions to know what they were talking about and have been reliable in the past.

"However, those sources are not prepared to back up the information that they provided to this newspaper on Monday, and on that basis it is not possible to state unequivocally that Keith Tabatznik's appointment was not approved by the executive committee.

"We therefore must accept Larry Mussenden's version of events and we retract the claims made by the sources in this story."