NZF embraces review findings
New Zealand Football will implement 22 recommendations made as the result of an independent review into the its conduct and culture.
Employment lawyer Phillipa Muir released her findings yesterday, after conducting more than 80 interviews since being appointed on July 6.
Chief among them was that Andreas Heraf breached New Zealand Football’s code of conduct and Worksafe New Zealand’s bullying guidelines during his time in charge of the national women’s team, the Football Ferns.
Muir wrote that Heraf ‘‘engaged in repeated and unreasonable behaviour towards a number of the players and staff and they were (and many remain) distressed and humiliated by what occurred. That constituted bullying behaviour’’.
Heraf resigned as Football Ferns coach and technical director on July 31.
His was the second highprofile resignation in as many months, after that of chief executive Andy Martin on June 29, the week after the review had been instigated following complaints from a dozen players and one staff member about Heraf’s conduct.
Muir wrote that while she had received ‘‘strong feedback’’ about Martin from a number of those she interviewed, she was limited in what she could say about him by the confidential terms of his departure from NZ Football.
While Martin escaped scrutiny, NZ Football as an organisation did not.
Muir found that the organisation bore responsibility for complaints about Heraf, as ‘‘some staff specifically raised issues’’ following the team’s tour of Spain in March this year, ‘‘but those were ignored or downplayed’’.
She also found NZ Football ‘‘failed to sufficiently support and transition Mr Heraf when he came to New Zealand from Austria’’.
Muir noted the organisation had no diversity and inclusion policy, no women on its senior management team, and that only 21 per cent of its staff were female.
Muir said there was a perception held by some that NZ Football was a ‘‘boys’ club,’’ and that there was ‘‘a tolerance of inappropriate banter’’ in parts of the organisation.
She found the organisation’s executive committee (ExCo) – in effect its board – ‘‘has been too ‘hands off’ in its governance in recent years’’ and that it ‘‘needs to obtain greater reporting from management’’.
Her 22 recommendations largely consist of steps NZ Football and ExCo should take to remedy those failings.
It will fall to ExCo president Deryck Shaw and interim chief executive Andrew Pragnell – appointed in August – to lead the way in implementing them.
There have been calls for Shaw to resign as NZ Football president – a role he has held since 2015 and was re-elected to in May – given the scope of the organisation’s failures under his watch, but yesterday he said he was determined to lead the response to the review.
‘‘What I’d say to the football community is we’ve received the report, we’ve unanimously adopted all the recommendations and we’ll being moving to action those,’’ he added.
‘‘That’s our commitment now, we’ll seek a mandate from our members if that’s what our members require to move forward.’’