As controversy over the status of Mariano Barreto rages on, Europe’s football governing body UEFA has stepped into the debate describing the Portuguese as a fitness coach.

In a news report over his appointment as the head coach of Ghana, the official website of UEFA concurred with news reports Barreto is a fitness when it said: “Finally, FC Lokomotiv Moskva's fitness coach, Mariano Barreto, is also contemplating a new start after being appointed coach of the Ghana national team.”

The suspicion that Barretto was about to use Ghana to experiment his coaching skills was confirmed when he told UEFA.com: "I always dreamed of becoming a head coach," he said. "The success of Lokomotiv is the reason why I was invited to Ghana. They have a good national side which can achieve a lot."

The full report can be seen on this internet link page:

http://www.uefa.com/news/newsId=137105,printer.htmx

Meanwhile attempts to hide Barreto’s status have been fully exposed by GHANAWEB. Barreto was appointed as by Lokomotiv Moscow as a fitness on 1st April 2003. The official website of the Russian club said: “Portuguese coach Mariano Barreto, who helped Lokomotiv to prepare for the Champions League games in February, sings a contract with Loko until the end of 2003 to supervise fitness level of players.”

The full report can be seen on this internet link page:

http://www.lokomotiv.ru/en/prev01.htm

Similar concerns were raised by this reporter prior to the appointment of Milan Zivadinovic but were ignored by the Ghana Football Association.

Milan Zivadinovic went AWOL in September 2002 after presiding over a solitary game, Ghana’s 1-0 defeat to Uganda in the opening game of the qualifying series of the 2004 African Cup of Nations. He was paid $15,000 as enticement fee for a contract of two years for which he earned a monthly salary of $10,000.

Zivadinovic was sacked while still in Yugoslavia. He has an undistinguished record of going AWOL as national team coach of Iraq and a club side in Saudi Arabia.