Having read of Bonita Mersiades dismissal from the FFA recently in relation to the FFA Bid for the World Cup, one has to wonder why she was dismissed?
It is becoming clearer to me that as the Government stepped in to take over the bidding process they found many problems with the bid.
Clearly they took one look at the way the bid was being run and decided it had to be changed.
Most clearly, looking from the outside, the biggest problem with the bid was its lack of transparency in dealing with affected stakholders.
These being - most prominently the AFL, NRL, Etihad Stadium Management and other stadium management around Australia, like the MCC.
Clearly Mersiades had failed to consult or even come up with a reasonable plan to include these bodies in the World Cup bid - which they need to be - preferring to try and ride roughshod over them and win the bid before conceding an inch.
This approach was obviously unacceptable, and I would suspect the Government threatened to pull any meaningful support of the World Cup bid if this modus operandi was not changed.
(This may have come from the Minister overlooking the Bid)
It seems quite possible that Mersiades refused to modify any of her behaviour in relation to the running of the bid, and she has become some sort of scapegoat in that respect. (Who knows how much input she really had? But she clearly had some).
In any case, it certainly looks to me as if the Feds have forced her out as they look to restructure the bid. It remains to be seen whether there is any way to salvage the bid and get any agreement with the effected parties - ie the AFL, NRL and stadium managements.
The mismanagement of 2009 may in fact sink the bid in the end as these stakeholders will not roll over as the FFA apparently had thought they would - and neither will the Government force them to either.
It is becoming clearer to me that as the Government stepped in to take over the bidding process they found many problems with the bid.
Clearly they took one look at the way the bid was being run and decided it had to be changed.
Most clearly, looking from the outside, the biggest problem with the bid was its lack of transparency in dealing with affected stakholders.
These being - most prominently the AFL, NRL, Etihad Stadium Management and other stadium management around Australia, like the MCC.
Clearly Mersiades had failed to consult or even come up with a reasonable plan to include these bodies in the World Cup bid - which they need to be - preferring to try and ride roughshod over them and win the bid before conceding an inch.
This approach was obviously unacceptable, and I would suspect the Government threatened to pull any meaningful support of the World Cup bid if this modus operandi was not changed.
(This may have come from the Minister overlooking the Bid)
It seems quite possible that Mersiades refused to modify any of her behaviour in relation to the running of the bid, and she has become some sort of scapegoat in that respect. (Who knows how much input she really had? But she clearly had some).
In any case, it certainly looks to me as if the Feds have forced her out as they look to restructure the bid. It remains to be seen whether there is any way to salvage the bid and get any agreement with the effected parties - ie the AFL, NRL and stadium managements.
The mismanagement of 2009 may in fact sink the bid in the end as these stakeholders will not roll over as the FFA apparently had thought they would - and neither will the Government force them to either.
