Football Federation Australia admitted they used contract loopholes to bypass giving sacked Matildas coach Alen Stajcic any warnings or counselling prior to his removal on Saturday.
At a hastily convened press conference at the Sydney hotel hosting a Matildas leadership meeting, FFA CEO David Gallop refused to shed any more light on the events leading up to Stajcic’s sacking.
He addressed the players in the morning, before returning later in the day to meet them once more, to outline the reasons behind the upheaval just five months before the Women's World Cup in June.
He insisted the FFA had not been asleep at the wheel to miss the alleged workplace issues picked up in a routine player survey by the PFA in the middle of last year.
But he repeated that the deteriorating situation required urgent action.
"Further information was only available to us in the past week," he said.
He also today insisted the decision was NOT reached as a result of the PFA surveys and a follow up survey by workplace bullying group OurWatch.
"It is a misconception that the decision in relation to the head coach was solely based on surveys," he said. "It was based on a range of reasons and a range of information."
Stajcic was interviewed on Friday followed by a two hour conference call of the FFA board before the 45 year old women's football veteran was summarily removed from his post.
Today Gallop admitted there had been no warnings given about his behaviour nor was he offered counselling, insisting the terms of the coach's contract allowed them to act as they had.
"This was a cumulative thing and a decision was taken to pay out with notice," he said.
He played down suggestions of a divided squad, despite the social media posts of praise and gratitude to Stajcic by most of the current squad.
But he admitted: "I think there are mixed views - no doubt about that.
"It's not within the power of the players to appoint coach nor is it of course then within the power of the players to reinstate a coach – but that was not put to me."
The FFA enquiries are still continuing with FFA Head of National Performance Luke Casserly reportedly called back from the Asian Cup in the UAE to assist, as well as questions asked of the head of women's football, Emma Highwood.
The future of assistant coach Gary van Egmond – father of Matildas skipper, Emily – still remains unclear as well as other backroom staff in the Matildas set up.
"There is an ongoing review and we want to provide certainty as quickly as possible, as less disruption as possible," said Gallop.
"And that's the commitment that we've given to the playing group today."
The FFA have not yet begun talks with possible candidates to replace Stajcic and sought the input from players on what they wanted to see in a new coach.
They hope to appoint a new coach within the new fortnight, he said, stressing the short timeframe before the WWC was one of the reasons for the swift action against Stajcic.
He added: "We will have a process that we can announce quite quite quickly around how we'll do that. The Matildas were offered input and we pleased to do that."
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