Meanwhile, we have a game on in just over two weeks and no coach.
Meanwhile, we have a game on in just over two weeks and no coach.
…which is surely close to the truth, it beggars belief that she was not front and centre in this sorry saga , in fact would be a concern about her competence if she wasn’t given she’s on the board due to her deep involvement in women’s football.
Anyone heard a peep out of Emma Highwood yet?
FFA board meeting tonight according to above article, 50/50 chance we will either get another car crash press conference tomorrow or with any luck Gallop’s head on a stick.
Litigation is imminent, the board would be mad to say anything further at this point. Another car crash presser would at least provide plenty of goo though. I’m all for it.
So the board and Gallop have come out and made a statement. They stand by their decision, refute some of the claims Stajcic made and have given no more info on the reason he was sacked, hiding behind the so called confidentiality of the statements and surveys they gathered.
I don’t understand why they can’t disclose the content and detail of the surveys and statements without giving the names of those involved? Am I overlooking something?
So Nikou is steering away from “toxic culture” now, and hedging his bets on termination of Stajic’s contract based on legal loopholes? Did Gallop get to say anything this time or has he been gagged??
Yeah, he was the one continued to push the confidentiality line. Also said Stajcic knows the team environment was not satisfactory despite what he said in his presser.
After Stajcic was on 7:30 Report last night Leigh Sales said they had invited Gallop on to reply tonight.
interesting article here and some decent points from Simon Hill. The whole affair has been mismanaged from the start. Everything to me points to an agenda in trying to get Stajcic out and the FFA seriously misjudged the reaction of the football population.
The fact is, Stajcic managed to turn around a mediocre team that no one in Australia really cared about, and turned them into one of the most successful national teams (both men and women) that we currently have. This, in a time where the FFA was a complete shambles, wasn’t investing any time into the women’s game and was focusing on the men’s national team’s performance at the world cup.
What more, firing him just months before a world cup where, the Matilda’s are seriously considered as one of the main contenders for the top spot, is a joke. There’s still no sign of a replacement four and a half months out.
am I being too cynical in thinking that some people in the FFA thought that they could just get rid of Alen, throw some vague lines out about culture and attitudes in the camp and thought that everyone would just jump on it and go nuts with some #metoo stuff?
I think they honestly thought that people would just run with some gender equality issue wihtout them having to provide any substance and it has blown up in their face. They’ve used the atmosphere of real issues that have come to light recently as their excuse.
I was thinking that as well. So far accusations between men abusing women have managed to blow up and it’s been a trial by social media, with people not caring about whether accusations are true or false. What isn’t helping here is that there hasn’t been any public corroboration from players that there have been issues have there?
Not one player or person associated with the coaching team has come out against Stajcic. Not one.
I don’t get why they didn’t just wait until after the World Cup when they could go for a “mutual termination, pursuing other opportunities” narrative. Staj wouldn’t have his reputation dragged through the mud, the players wouldn’t have the distraction heading into the World Cup and the FFA could have sat back, enjoyed the ride for the next 6 months and hopefully find an intern who could write a half decent press release for them.
just read on twitter that Ante Milicic is being rumoured to be a replacement.
So much for the job for a woman line. Sounds like replacing him with another man is a way of trying to shift the blame away from it being getting rid of a man just for being a man.
Hope they remember to close the studio doors if he ventures in.
The issue there is that there is a risk of Matildas performing well at the world cup and even winning it. If he said no to a mutual termination, there would be even less of a justified reason to get rid of him.
Yep, and then we’d be stuck with a male coach for when we hopefully host the next one. What a blow that would be to the lesbian mafia.
You are about the right level of cynical IMHO
Spot on. New board had motive …was basically common knowledge staj was a goner. Only surprise was instead of waiting till July when they could have done it with flimsy excuse , they could not wait and grossly miscalculated that the timing change was going to require a much much better reason
Also have seen Ross Aloisi is on the shortlist to take over. Sometimes all you can do is laugh.