Culina axing proves contracts worth nothing

By John Takemura / Roar Rookie

With the sacking of Branko Culina under acrimonious circumstances still fresh in everyone’s mind, the question must be asked: why would you want to be an A-League coach? It seems a contract can be broken whenever a club sees fit.

Culina was given his marching orders by the Newcastle Jets just five days before the start of the new A-League campaign only hours after he fronted the season launch, discussing the chances of his team. It would be safe to believe the decision to sack him was made prior.

On the face of it, there was no reason to sack Culina at all, with the club looking good on the field, having gone through pre-season undefeated.

This was a man who only last October, when billionaire mining magnate Nathan Tinkler and his Hunter Sports Group (HSG) saved the Jets from financial oblivion, was given a contract extension till 2015.

At the crux of the decision appears to be the knee injury suffered by his son Jason earlier in pre-season, which has ruled out him out of the entire campaign.

Culina Jnr had signed a deal believed to be worth $2.4m over three years to become the Jets’ marquee player.

This injury was different to the knee injury he suffered during the Asian Cup in January that forced him to miss the rest of the previous A-League season with former club Gold Coast United.

However, as the injury was on the same knee, the injury was deemed to be pre-existing, meaning the insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost of the contract, leaving Tinkler and the Jets out of pocket.

The Jets claim via independent medical advice that Jason would be unlikely to return, possibly not before his three-year contract ends, and asked for his contract to be ‘set aside’, meaning that Tinkler would not have to pay out his contract.

They have offered no compensation to either man, which doesn’t seem right.

After all, the Jets’ football advisory board were responsible for bringing Jason to the club not his father Branko. This was admitted by the head of the board Ray Baartz in mid-September.

The club claimed they performed due diligence in investigating Jason’s previous injury. Now that he has suffered this new injury, the board has apparently made the decision to wash their hands of someone when they are down and deemed that as Branko is Jason’s father it gives reason to sack him too.

To me, it seems like blatant incompetence on the Jets part.

According to figures released earlier this week by the League Managers Association (LMA) who represent managers in the Premier League and Football League, the cost of compensation in changing managers amounted to £99m during the 2010-11 campaign.

This seems an extraordinary amount of money to pay sacked coaches.

The LMA also announced that 58 managers had lost their jobs last season. This hire and fire culture is clearly not helpful. Between October 2010 and February 2011, 25 English Football League clubs opted to sack their manager.

But, one of the most interesting facts I garnered from the report was that Championship (First Division) managers who were sacked in 2010-11 had an average tenure of less than a year.

These are not good statistics if you are seeking long term job security. They show that there needs to be a bit more realism by owners in reaching their targeted ambitions.

Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been in charge of Manchester United for almost 25 years, sees the lack of managerial job security as one of the game’s biggest problems.

“It’s always a problem in modern-day management,” Ferguson said.

“You see time and time again that these guys are only in a position a year before the clubs are sacking them.”

As someone who has been in a role the length of time he has, and had incredible success, he is in the best place to talk about such issues.

A contract is a contract and unless there is a good reason for it to be terminated, it should be honoured.

The Crowd Says:

2011-10-08T02:09:36+00:00

Ian Whitchurch

Guest


Peter Wilson, It wont end up in court. See section 21, and this is most definitely a section 1.2(a) matter http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/site/_content/document/00000362-source.pdf Remember, FFA have declined to set aside Jason Culina's contract.

2011-10-07T12:36:17+00:00

Peter Wilson

Roar Guru


There is a universal tenet in any contract about "proper duty of care" by both parties to act in good faith no matter what the wording. This will end up in court and the Culinas will be compensated, but Jason won't get the full $2.4M. Its just a question of how much the Culinas knew about Jason's knee injury and if they deliberately tried to mislead or deceive the Newcastle football club when they signed their contracts and did not disclose all known facts at that time.

2011-10-07T10:30:26+00:00

Ian Whitchurch

Guest


As usual, Fussball is being willfully stupid - quality candidates dont sign contracts that say "fire me when you want", and they especially dont leave such clauses there when they have just been re-signed. Thus Branko Culina gets fired, and so his contract gets paid out. Jason Culina's contract has specifically *not* been set aside by FFA, and therefore goes to arbitration ... and as his club knew about his knee injury, and has paid doctors and so on, and looked at his pre-existing knee condition and signed him anyway, the club will be found to have sacked Jason Culina without cause, and be up for his pay for the whole three years (and just as well - if you can get fired without pay for getting hurt, no serious player will ever play in the A-League). Nothing to see here. Just a private owner throwing a temper tantrum and having a massive attack of stupid.

2011-10-07T04:19:59+00:00

Ash

Guest


Could not agree more Fusball! -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

2011-10-07T04:13:34+00:00

Fussball ist unser leben

Roar Guru


John, perhaps, you should dwell on the final sentence of your article: "A contract is a contract and unless there is a good reason for it to be terminated, it should be honoured." Unless you have seen a copy of Branko's Employment Contract with the Newcastle Jets, how can you possibly know whether there has been a material breach of a term that allows for early termination of the contract?

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