Chris Furbert says the special committee set up to arbitrate the matter of Neville Tyrrell's re-election to the post of Bermuda Football Association (BFA) president failed to investigate.

Chairman of the four member group of honourary life vice-presidents, Austin Woods agrees -- there was no investigation.

However, when contacted for a response to Furbert's criticism Woods added that his committee were never asked to `investigate', rather their's was a task of merely proper procedure -- according to the BFA's written constitution -- was followed during the course of the July 24 annual general meeting.

"There's a couple of things,'' began Woods, who was joined on the committee by Walter Roberts, Reginald Burrows and Calvin Symonds.

"Chris Furbert, who was a part of the special committee that requested that the honorary vice-presidents look at the procedure to ensure that it did not contravene the constitution, seemed to change the goal posts last night.

"Because he talked about investigating, that was not the criteria that was asked of us. We were asked to ensure that the procedures, as laid down in the constitution were followed.

"And it was that which the honorary life vice-president, after getting the transcript of the meeting, looking at the constitution, followed.

"We were never asked to investigate the meeting. We were asked to ensure that the procedure was followed, and we had a very clear and finite request made by the special committee headed by Mr. (Carlyle) Crockwell.'' An affiliate sect led by Furbert had long harped on the issue of whether another honorary vice-president, Eugene Blakeney, should have occupied the chairman's role during the AGM in relevance to the constitution, which they contended mandated first vice-president Aldwyn Savery take the role.

A 12-12 tie vote between Tyrrell and then challenger Mark Trott following ballots cast by the 22 affiliates, treasurer Delroy O'Brien and Savery precipitated Blakeney's casting of the deciding vote, causing the furore.

Continued on page 50 Woods hits back Continued from page 49 However, Woods, a political veteran and current chairman of the United Bermuda Party, remained unmoved.

"The constitution, as far as I'm concerned, is clear as laid out, and I cannot talk about whether it was right or wrong. We were asked to ensure that the meeting was carried out in accordance with the constitution.

"There might have been some other matters that took place, but when we looked at the transcript from the meeting, and when we looked at the constitution, we found no ambiguity.'' As for Furbert's assertion that there should have been some interviewing of the affiliates in attendance, along with BFA executive members, Woods fired a quick retort.

"We don't have to interview somebody,'' he said. "If you do that then you have to go and review the constitution.

"But we were not asked to do that. We were asked whether the meeting was carried out in accordance to the constitution, based upon the transcripts, because I nor any others were there.

"So the only thing we had to go by were the minutes. And there was nothing in the minutes that tell that the constitution was not followed. And there were no objections to Mr. Blakeney in the first place.''