Sacked Stajcic fears for his name
SACKED Matildas boss Alen Stajcic fears his international coaching reputation has been ruined by his axing, a year after he turned down lucrative approaches to quit the Matildas.
As Stajcic broke his silence in an emotional press conference in a bid to clear his name, it has emerged he was headhunted in late 2017 by the English and Chinese football associations to coach their women’s teams.
Stajcic insisted he had no regrets over turning down the overtures but said the need to avoid his reputation being terminally damaged had led him to front the media yesterday.
As the Football Federation Australia board prepared to meet to address the toxic fallout from his sacking, Stajcic almost broke down several times while detailing the effect of his sacking on his wife and daughters.
“I’m here to clear my name,” he said and to counter the “innuendo” that had “exploded” since FFA terminated his contract without warning three weeks ago.
The approaches from England and China prompted Football Federation Australia to renegotiate Stajcic’s contract and award him a significant pay rise in December 2017 — Stajcic saying he was worried such opportunities might not come again.
“That’s a possibility and one of the main reasons that I wanted to do the press conference,” he said. “To try to quell the innuendo that has exploded around the world and in Australia and begin the process of restoring my reputation.”
“It’s very easy to regret (not taking the offers) now in hindsight — they were difficult decisions at the time, but ultimately my heart and passion has always been with Australian football, and with Australian football succeeding.
“That’s always been the driving force behind my decisions, so I can’t regret them now.”
FFA’s board appeared to hunker down in response, issuing a rare public comment on the matter from chairman Chris Nikou in which he claimed Stajcic had admitted there were issues within the team environment.
“Mr Stajcic, by his own admission and in the presence of an FFA lawyer and the FFA CEO David Gallop, said the team environment was ‘dysfunctional’ and “always going to be this way’,” Nikou said.
“In those circumstances we decided to act in time to put the team’s FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign back on track.
“The FFA reached a unanimous view that Mr Stajcic was no longer the right person to enable the Matildas to perform at their best — on and off the pitch.”
Yet Stajcic insisted he had received regular congratulatory missives from Gallop during his more than four years in charge, and that he assumed he had the backing senior management.