Brazilian coach Rene Simoes has vehemently denied having applied for Bermuda Football Association's (BFA) vacant technical director's post — despite having appeared on the association's list of applicants for the top job.

In an article that appeared in the Jamaica Gleaner over the weekend the 54-year-old Simoes was quoted as saying: "I have not applied for, nor indicated any interest in a coaching job in Bermuda. I have also not been contacted by the Bermuda Federation (BFA) with an offer for such a position."

Last week The Royal Gazette revealed in an exclusive that Simoes was among those having applied for the $125,000-per-year post after written correspondence listing the names of all the applicants, including the Brazilian's, was obtained by this newspaper.

Simoes, former England players Paul Mariner and John Barnes, as well as Trinidadian coach Stephen Hart and Fifa instructor Ben Davies were among some of the high-profile coaches who had applied to become the association's next technical director.

But last night a BFA source revealed that Barnes had not in fact applied for the job, but did not deny that Simoes had been listed in the written correspondence as having applied. The document was sent out by the association's technical committee, headed up by Mark Trott who did not return calls by press time last night.

"Somebody inside the association messed up and gave you the information prematurely and put somebody's reputation on the line internationally. Somebody in the association gave away information that has made The Royal Gazette very happy because they beat everybody to the punch," the association source said.

"Anybody who knows anything about the international arena would know that at the end of the day nobody that is working somewhere else is going to agree that they sent their resumé to another country. They are never going to agree while they are working somewhere else and there are countless examples of this internationally.

"Look at (Juande) Ramos from Seville . . . . he had been saying for months that he isn't going to Tottenham but where does he end up going? Tottenham. Look at (Sven Goran) Eriksson. He said he wasn't going to come back to the English game, but now he is coaching Manchester City.

"It's all about integrity and the story (Royal Gazette's) has put international coaches in a very difficult position and embarrassed Bermuda internationally."

As a professional coach for more than two decades Simoes has worked in various regions around the globe, but is more renowned for coaching Jamaica's now famous Reggea Boyz to the 1998 World Cup in France.

In 1988 he coached Brazil to the South American Youth Championship and at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he coached his country's women's national team to a silver medal. Simoes has also enjoyed success in Qatar, coaching Al-Rayyan Sports Club to the 1990 League and cup double.

As outlined in the BFA's ambitious, multi-million-dollar, six-year strategic plan the association's next technical director will be presented with the daunting task of overseeing the development of the game at all levels, developing a senior coaching education programme and various national programmes, coach the senior national team as well as developing club and school coaches. Last week the BFA announced that a short-list of six or seven applicants will be contacted in the "near future".