Northern NSW Football zones brief lawyers to kick out directors

BY JAMES GARDINER
03 Nov, 2011 04:00 AM

THE presidents of the seven zones that make up Northern NSW Football will ‘‘pursue every legal avenue’’ to remove the three directors responsible for the dismissal of chief executive David Eland unless their demands for a satisfactory explanation are met.
The presidents sent a letter via email on Tuesday calling for NNSWF chairman Peter Moore, deputy chairman Greg Wilson and director Richard Face to resign by Friday.

But the directors countered by calling a press conference for this morning where they will ‘‘make an announcement regarding the chief executive officer at the NNSWF office’’.

Moore and Wilson will front the press conference this morning. Face is on holidays in New Zealand. It is not known what the announcement will be, but one thing is clear: they will not be reappointing Eland.

The more likely scenario is that the remaining board members will appoint an interim CEO.

Although the directors remain tightlipped, the Herald understands they are standing by their decision to terminate Eland’s contract and believe they have solid grounds for their action.

Eland was told of his sacking on Sunday, two years into a five-year deal.

A vote of no confidence in him was passed 3-0 at an extraordinary board meeting on Friday night.

Two NNSWF directors, Bill Walker and Michael Gaertner, refused to take part in the vote of no confidence and resigned from the six-man board.

The other remaining director, Andrew Robertson, abstained from voting.

Walker has since been highly critical of the process to remove Eland and labelled it ‘‘morally and ethically’’ wrong.

Newcastle Football president Steve Cucumanovski said Moore had informed him of the press conference but did not provide any further details. The other presidents were notified by email.

The board’s decision and subsequent refusal to outline the reasons behind the removal of Eland has caused outrage among the zones that make up the 50,000 stakeholders in Northern NSW.

Football Federation Australia has also sought an explanation.

The zone presidents held a 90-minute telephone hook-up last night and voted unanimously to seek legal representation.

‘‘The seven zones resolved to pursue every legal avenue to remove the directors responsible for the dismissal of David Eland as chief executive of Northern NSW Football,’’ said Cucumanovski, who is serving as spokesman for the zones.

‘‘We are solid in what we are going to do.

‘‘It is not a witch hunt. We just want some answers.’’

Cucumanovski would not outline what course of action they intended to take but confirmed they had held talks with a Newcastle legal firm to act on their behalf.

‘‘The board has been issued letters and they have until Friday to do what they need to do,’’ he said.

‘‘We respect that and we will not go any further with it until then.

‘‘But the legal avenue will start from tomorrow. We want to make sure everything is in place, dot the i’s and cross the t’s, so that if we need to go down that path we are prepared.’’

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