David Gallop insists FFA had no choice but to sack Matildas coach Alen Stajcic
Despite the players airing their shock and dismay at the decision, Football Federation Australia boss David Gallop said there was no avoiding the axing of Matildas coach Alen Stajcic.
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Football Federation boss David Gallop insists the governing body could not have headed off the axing of Matildas coach Alen Stajcic, despite growing calls for wider accountability over the crisis engulfing the women’s national team.
After meeting the Matildas playing group twice to address their shock and dismay at Stajcic’s dramatic sacking, Gallop reminded them that it is” not within the power of the players to appoint the coach nor is then within their powers to reinstate a coach”.
Forced to defend the FFA over persistent questions about how the crisis was able to explode just five months before the World Cup, Gallop claimed the FFA board had been forced to move quickly.
Stajcic’s sacking on Saturday over what FFA termed “an unsatisfactory team environment” came in the wake of two player reviews and what Gallop described only as “a range of information”.
But the fact that the loss of confidence in the national coach was able to reach a terminal level was attacked by prominent figures in the game.
Former Socceroo Craig Foster, nominated to stand for the FFA board in December, described it as “a failure of leadership … (it) should have been identified and managed well before”.
His comments were echoed by Craig Moore, who worked in the FFA’s national teams unit and said such crises were “happening with some consistency now which to raise considerable alarm bells”.
Gallop again refused to divulge the specifics of the findings against Stajcic, citing the confidentiality of the review process — part of which was overseen by an external advocacy group, Our Watch, promoting gender equality.
Players in their review raised issues including bullying, homophobia and harassment within the team environment, with Stajcic held to be responsible for presiding over that environment.
Addressing the media, Gallop refused to entertain suggestions that senior management could have addressed the issues earlier, before they reached the apparent boiling point which prompted management to act.
“The PFA work (a review around the team’s high-performance environment) was initially after the Tournament of Nations in July,” Gallop said. “These matters are cumulative and there was a real view things deteriorated in recent times and then it gets to a critical point in time where a decision needs to be made with preparation in mind.
“Further information was only available to us in the last week or so, and these were cumulative views that were taken, taking into account a range of factors.”
Shattered with what we have found out TODAY. https://t.co/8PMISDnsrL
— Chloe Logarzo (@CLogarzo) January 19, 2019
Gallop conceded that the decision to remove Stajcic had divided the squad, after 16 players signalled support for their coach via social media.
Many of the squad looked visibly shocked as they gathered at a Sydney hotel for a long-planned workshop on the culture of the team, and sought a second round of talks with Gallop during the day as they demanded to know why the coach who had lifted the side to its highest ranking in the world had been fired.
“As I said to the players, there are confidentiality aspects to this, and a range of reasons for it,” Gallop said. “I think they are getting their head around that now.
“Of course, there is a curiosity about information and I have reminded them of the confidentiality of the survey work that was done and reminded them that it was a misconception that the decision in relation to the head coach was based solely on surveys.
“It was based on a range of reasons and a range of information.”
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