NZF president set to quit
OPINION: New Zealand Football president Deryck Shaw is expected to resign on Friday.
Sources said on Thursday that the NZF president would fall on his sword by the end of the week.
When contacted on Thursday night, Shaw said he could not comment, which was a change from his previous stance of saying he would not stand down.
NZF is expected to make an announcement on Friday.
After the release of the Phillipa Muir’s scathing review into NZF’s conduct, culture and governance last week, Shaw said that he would be seeking mandate from the members.
He emailed stakeholders asking for their support and detailing his extensive board experience.
He then requested a meeting with the chairs of the seven regional federations to discuss the way forward, but they rejected this, instead opting to hold a meeting without him to discuss the review findings.
That rejection was understood to have been the catalyst for his expected resignation.
If the remaining executive committee members choose to stay on, they need to elect a president with decisive leadership qualities. The remaining board members are: vice-president Philip Barry (elected 2014), Paul Cochrane (2012), Caroline Beaumont (2015), Scott Moran
(2015), Mike Killick (2016), Rakesh Naidoo (2017), Garry Carnachan
(2018) and Johanna Wood (2018). All are solid individuals. They work hard on this board for no remuneration.
Three are finance or business advisers, two are lawyers, one is a policeman/Human Rights Commission adviser, and two have extensive federation board experience.
What is lacking is real-world, top-level football knowledge, but that can be changed. Someone with high-level experience in football needs to be nominated at the next congress.
Shaw’s resignation could have implications for Jon Ormond.
He resigned from the NZF board last week after being elected in May.
It is understood he would consider standing again for the board, but only if Shaw was no longer president.
He had been trying to work from the inside to get some positive initiatives going, but had butted heads with Shaw.
Shaw’s departure could see him come back for another crack, perhaps even as president.
It’s not an easy gig, the NZF presidency, as Shaw has found out.
It takes a mixture of strong character, business knowhow and football knowledge to do it well. Think back to March, when Shaw accepted the Governance Mark from Sport New Zealand – the first national sporting organisation to receive it.
It appeared Shaw was doing a fine job at that stage, but jump forward five months and NZF has gone from being regarded as one the best NSO’s to one in turmoil.
The board’s ‘‘hands off’’ approach, as described by Muir and led by Shaw, caused that, and has likely cost Shaw his position.