FFA have lost control of a narrative now threatening to consume them

If they'de lost 5-0 to England the scoreline wouldn't have been flattering to England. They were outclassed. Call them friendlies or whatever has never meant a thing if your team look like a bunch of misfits. It's a great chance to employ a top coach who may gel the team into a potent outfit if he/she has the confidence in the players. I have the confidence in our players but did not have in Stajics coaching ability beyond where he got them to.

Yes I'm not sure why they just didn't sack him on the basis of how a highly competitive team has fallen apart over the past year and a bit. Most coaches get sacked for the teams poor performance and this sacking should have been no different to every other. Instead they made up some culture b/s and created a media picnic.

Asking for a friend. How many times have you commented on the game article v this one

Crazy talk. All the problems at the FFA revolved around the Lowy Family. Now they're gone, there are no big issues that can't be solved.

It's very important people's feelings are respected you know.

So Tuckerman are you just an FFA cronie or serious about the game going forward.. I agree with your intro ..but I am not sure about your actual motive with this story.

It really doesn't matter how FFA handle the issue ! Just like the previous arrogant set of officeholders, this group are beholding to no-one! Virtually self elected and reporting to no-one! From the very start the system is flawed, The elections need to be more inclusive with a far wider electorate. And Regular performance reviews. Any system that allows a board to just ride out a controversial issue by keeping quiet or claiming confidentiality is patently unsatisfactory. The board have no right to either expect or offer confidentiality, the govern a PUBLIC Sport! The sport belongs to the fans & players NOT THE BOARD!

Is that you David Gallop ?

I’m a bit late to this party due to traveling and unfortunatley am on the wrong island to have got to Eden Park last night and been part of what sounded like a cracking good night. Itis sometimes frustrating to see a story drag on and often at the expense of some more positive news coming out of the game but ultimately, it is we, the consumers that dictate and determine the types of stories that are published. As a child and particularly in my teenage years I recall almost daily articles on the subject of George Best. It was either nightclubs, womanizing or drinking stories. It was repetitive beyond belief and of little interest to me, but I guarantee that the headlines helped to sell thousands of copies of tabloid newspapers in the UK. In later years there has been Wayne Rooney stories, John Terry; “ when will Wenger go” stories that have lasted months, never mind a few weeks and even now, Jose Mourinho provides regular commentary in some form without even being directly involved in the game. We have to accept that bad news is good news and attracts attention and arouses curiosity, outrage, and plenty more. As stories unravel, they also “grow legs” and it is often the case that additional information comes to light, new angles are found and so the story rolls on or even regenerates. Besides, if a story surrounding an unusual sacking involving a national side and the FFA didn’t attract ongoing headlines, many of us would feel that the media was not doing its job. As an addendum, it was interesting to note that even in the preview of the W League, there was plenty to sy about the scking and the ongoing story.

The W league final is getting as much attention as the media wants to give it. To say Mike should not write about the FFA shambles because of the final is nonsense. This is a newsworthy story that has a long way to go. Go Mike!

Hang on... For years you were Gallop’s most staunch defender, and said Lowy was the man who had to go. Now it’s Gallop..? Will it be Foz next month?

If all the FFA had done was lost control of the narrative this would have blown over already. This is not a communications issue its a management issue of the highest order. Either the FFA have trashed a good coach's name or they allowed a poor situation that threatened players well being (although the players seemingly are denying this) to fester for who knows how long. Either way the FFA has mismanaged.

jamesb - The Matildas did dipped in form last year. Did they? Sure, they lost to Chile, but they recovered immediately to dominate the return match. I was occupied and missed those games so I can't comment on their form perse, but if you also quote the England and France games you could say they did not play well. But they were friendlies and they experimented with both those games. They left several key players at home (including Kerr), started a number of youth players ( like Ibini etc) and played others out of position. Some quoted this as madness, but as Stacjic explained pre-match, he needed them out of position so that when he had to make changes off the bench in a tight, meaningful game, he had an idea of who he could use where, and the players had a clue too. So no, I don't buy this loss in form, at all. If anything, he has improved the depth of the squad considerably.

An even bigger mistake was to make the Socceroos - Australia's premier football team - accessible only on PayTV with Fox and the likes the only way to watch the recent Asia Cup games. An absolutely appalling situation. FFA are ruining opportunities for millions more viewers to enjoy our national team and become our true number 1 sport (agenda by others here) by preventing free-to-air access - which should be mandatory to anyone buying any telecasting rights for this team.

Another interesting article on the subject. So much speculation about what did and didn't happen. Regardless of the facts, what we have seen in this past month is that this current board appears to be out of their depth. It seems that senior managers at the FFA were/are not equipped to deal with the 'real' problem that everyone sees, everyone except them, and that is the complete caustic environment at the head of the game, being the FFA. It's been said by others, closer to it than I am, and that is that there are not enough football brains/people at the top end of the organisation, both in management and at Board level. Pressure is now coming from the state federations, rightly so, as these bodies are the real powers in the game. If Football NSW and Football Victoria start feeling the heat, [and that's up to the likes of us to pressure them so they do] and demand answers of the FFA, then that is a lot more heat than the average fans/supporters can apply. If, as suggested earlier in the week, that the CEO [David Gallop], Head of National Teams [Luke Casseley], and the Head of Women's Football [Emma Highwood] are all replaced because they didn't act sooner on what was known, or should of been known to them [allegedly], then that just indicates where the real problems lie in the game. Taking a couple of phrases out of a complete conversation and then repeating them as acknowledgement of Alen's part in creating that culture is an easy and simplistic way of shifting the blame, in this whole sorry affair. It saddens me that experienced journalists [that should know better] have been given a storyline and now appears to be pushing it and has become part of the story themselves, a big no no in journalism and therefore part of a new problem for the game.

Yep, spot on mz. This case has all the hallmarks of an unfair/unjust sacking; precedents of which are countless. I suspect that FFA has concealed it's true (ie negative) assessment about Statjic so they've set about conjuring up a dubious process to create a damning report, based not on credible performance indicators (eg KPI's), but on 'culture', which can be loosely defined and/or assessed, depending on the needs of the report. This type of process gives the appearance of 'due process and credibility' but in fact it is far from it, as it's a manipulation and fabrication to fit into a pre-ordained narrative by Gallop and the FFA Board. In academia, credible research is paramount to ones personal/organisational integrity. Having valid and reliable data that withstands the toughest of peer scrutiny and consent prior to going forward with implementing the research method is a central pillar in the research process that must 100% stand on validity, reliability and credibility. Only then can research findings be accepted with legitimacy. I'd love to see FFA's 'research method' on this matter! and I bet it's seriously flawed! Therefore, it can only be that Statjic's removal was entirely personal. FFA are now hiding behind 'confidentiality' (haha, that's a standard blocking and obfuscation tactic used by alleged leaders who are actually unfit and incompetent to govern justly) - yep, the same bullying tactic used for decades and was exposed in both recent Royal Commissions on institutional child sexual abuse as well as the unconscionable conduct by the big financial institutions in Australia.... and no doubt will be found in the newest RC into aged care (and the lack of it). I truly hope Statjic and journos like Mike Tuckerman continue to unleash and don't stop to force the removal of these bad apples from their positions of power.

Amongst many things how the FFA leadership couldn’t see that allowing the father of a current glory player to sit on the MRP wasn’t controversial is amazing and just speaks to the culture of “we can do what the hell we like”.

The irony is the posters complaining that Mike should be positive and concentrate on the W Lesgue final itself are nowhere to be seen on the actual story dedicated to the final. Here’s the link to Mary’s article: https://www.theroar.com.au/2019/02/15/sydney-fc-vs-perth-glory-in-w-league-grand-final/ Maybe a few people could stop posting here and go and add to the FOUR comments over there?

LH Yep we need a circuit breaker we just peep digging a deeper hole... For me get Fozzie & Bonti running things even if only for a few months ....

I would say even more pressing for the new board now is SBS reporting "Both NSW and Victoria have the voting power in Congress to trigger an extraordinary general meeting seeking the removal of the board, should they see fit"