After today’s sacking of Matildas coach Alen Stajcic – occurring just months away from the team’s World Cup campaign in France- a question over natural justice is raised.
In the most extraordinarily poorly-timed decision, a midday Saturday Football Federation of Australia press conference announced that the 45-year-old would not control the Matilda’s much anticipated tilt at World Cup Glory.
After four years of sustained success in the position, he led the team to a comfortable place inside the top ten ranked nations in women’s football.
However, the FFA has chosen to chart a new course both for the upcoming World Cup and the short term future of the women’s national team.
The reasons for his dismissal were identified as “workplace” and “player welfare” issues that have continued to deteriorate in recent times.
Those conclusions were born of two separate surveys – one driven by the players association and one under the auspices of the FFA.
Chief Executive David Gallop minced few words in delivering the news to the media and no doubt Stajcic, earlier in the day.
“Ultimately the responsibility for changing culture rests with the head coach. We no longer feel confident that Alen is the right person to lead the team and staff,” Gallop said.
The use of such surveys or performance reviews are fraught with danger. Having now resigned from the education industry, I feel more comfortable recalling my experiences and expressing concerns over the negative treatment and sanctioning of professional people, based on nothing more than the opinion of others.
Hiding behind a veil of anonymity, modern school and university students raise grievances and concerns behind closed doors.
The accused is then rather hazily informed of the information, without any specifics detailed and asked to concoct strategies to deal with the situation.
The issues raised are often so vacuous they beggar belief. A student once informed my immediate superior that I had called her a ‘slut’ in my English class, after assigning her the role of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play Othello.
A colleague of mine was once informed by a superior, that “3-5 students have come to see me over concerns in your teaching.” They refused to be named, nor wished to identify the specific concerns they had. Somehow, the teacher was expected to adapt. To what, I’m not sure.
Alen Stajcic probably feels somewhat similar right now. The confidential surveys obviously raise some specific concerns – but how much he knows about them, I am not too sure.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
He is just another corporate victim in a modern and dangerous trend that permits fundamental questions to be raised in regards to the professionalism and aptitude of employees, with seemingly little space for a counter-argument or any form of natural justice.
The last thing Stajcic could be accused of is dereliction of duty from a coaching perspective. More likely, it appears that fractured relationships lie at the heart of the decision and his fall.
A frantic search for a new mentor is already underway and the momentous task of World Cup preparation needs to begin sooner rather than later. If this was a long term plan/agenda on behalf of the FFA, they could hardly have done it in a more untimely fashion.
What does appear certain is that having guided the Matildas to their highest ever position of fourth in the official FIFA rankings, Stajcic will leave his post with his head held high in terms of performances on the pitch.
This decision appears to have been made with off-field concerns at its core; concerns to which Alen Stajcic does not appear to have had the opportunity to respond.
Nephilim
Roar Rookie
Sorry mate I replied to you quite poorly. I do have female friends, colleagues and family, not once have I seen or heard of a lack of rights. I do hope you will give me some details so I can understand your side of the story better, as I would be shocked to hear it.
Franctony
Roar Rookie
At the rate at which people seem to be complaining about workplace culture in professional sports, soon you'll have then whinging about Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi increasing stress and pressure on footballers because of their extreme passion to achieve perfection in sports.. let's stop confusing football grounds as a corporate workplace. The players are privileged to wear the national team colors and it is expected that they train hard and strive to be the best that they can be. Unlike most of us, these players are the lucky few who get to pursue their passion as their profession. What next? Mandatory maximum training hours?
Franctony
Roar Rookie
Since when did male female dynamics become an issue here? The leading players seem to be firmly on the side of their coach. The issue here is that of the FFA body using anonymous surveys to on a professional football team made of a small number of players, and then using corporate type of policies to get rid of the players. Surveys have a way of getting people to complain due to its anonymity, and small sizes will exaggerate the results. Players who are not definite starters may complain. Do the same survey in Barcelona FC and i won't be surprised if the results are similar.
Ben
Roar Guru
"In theory, women have the same rights. But in practice, they don’t" Oh please, how so? Surely you cannot possibly think that men being twice as likely to be assaulted and 4x likely to be murdered is somehow "discrimination" against women?
Franctony
Roar Rookie
Then the FFA should have the guts and honesty to for him for the performance on the field, not hide behind bullshit like workplace culture.
Franctony
Roar Rookie
An elite national team of 15 to 20 players is a large group? Anyone not a definite starter will be disgruntled,so that means 5 to 10 players will have reasons to whinge. They've would be about 50 percent of the team. So these corporate suits then apply their text book principles and decide that the "manager" has to go?? The players who complained probably did not expect their coach to get fired. A small group of elite sports players is definitely not the place to hold a survey!
BWM
Guest
Appreciate your insight. The FFA suffers from the same affliction as civic government. People lack trust in them because no one in public or corporate life will speak plainly and openly. They act only on legal advice and it could be argued that lawyers are eating up our social fabric instead of protecting it. Woman should always be treated with respect and dignity. If that's the issue, not speaking truth (or at least perceived truth) will create further division. Until facts are known & understood, Stajicic deserves the benefit of the doubt. And if there were issues about player welfare, where were FFA? Should they not also having been guiding the coach on these matters? Why did it take a "survey" for then to become aware?
Nephilim
Roar Rookie
rather ambiguous
BWM
Guest
Why? What's special about Eriksson? Who, unless desperate would want to work for an administration that may terminate without proper explanation and in the process, assassinate ones character?
Redondo
Roar Rookie
In theory, women have the same rights. But in practice, they don’t.
Ben
Roar Guru
Of course you'd provide a link of an article authored by a very angry feminist. I mean, how dare Bettina Arndt support men right? The part of your comment about Miranda Devine is absurd! Haha. How on earth is she making a quid from that particular demographic when almost all problems they have are either taboo, or straight up censored in Australia. I hope you're not a career advisor. Hahaha.
Nephilim
Roar Rookie
What, so you're saying women don't have the same rights as men in Australia? Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance that affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. Humanism stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. Humanism is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.” https://www.humanist.org.au/what-is-humanism/
Redondo
Roar Rookie
I’m not sure you know what ‘humanist’ means. Regardless, the whole point of groups like Our Watch is that some parts of the population, like women, don’t enjoy the same rights as other parts, like men. Their goal is to fix that.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
I particularly enjoyed this take on Bettina Arndt... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-13/deveny--/3827136 Re Miranda...I think she worked out years ago how to make a quid out of a particular demographic and she’s been milking it ever since.
paul
Guest
Speaking of which, what happened to the E-League?
Nephilim
Roar Rookie
I have no clue who Miranda Devine is and if you mean the Daily Telegraph then no, I live in Melbourne for one and we don't get it here, second is that I don't read news papers. I'd like to point out that I am humanist, I don't discriminate by race, age, religion, sexuality or gender, I see us all as humans which science and DNA proves and we all deserve the same rights regardless of the aforementioned.
Ben
Roar Guru
If you knew anything about the causes of, and all dv statistics... There's not a chance in hell you'd hold this same opinion of Our Watch. I'm not going to get into this argument because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Perhaps you should ask yourself why a female journalist that's been in the industry for years, would hold such views. Maybe try looking up Bettina Arndt too.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Well, for starters, their journalism has led to Our Watch being labelled extremist. Anyone thinking rationally would say it’s the problem that’s extreme, not Our Watch, who are simply trying to fix it. Boring old accounting firm KPMG estimates violence against women costs the economy $22 billion a year. That’s outrageous enough without even mentioning the number of women who die each year as a result of domestic violence. And yet, Our Watch has become a target. Good ol’ Miranda has played a big part in that.
paul starrenburg
Roar Rookie
inderdaad!
Ben
Roar Guru
And what might be wrong with that may I ask?