Funny that the media was reporting that he was going before the meeting, eh?

They have said why though ... they don't need to be specific. Most employers do not give explicit details to their employees (let alone the general) public on sackings, especially if it is to with the treatment of other employees. This is to protect the employee(s), also that of the terminated employee. There are a lot of legalities surrounding employment in Australia, which most Australian's have fought for decades to have in place to protect themselves and others.

But this was to do with a 'toxic environment' - as Gallop said.  Not to do with treatment of specific employees.  You are making up this story about treatment of specific employees based on zero evidence.

Some of those not directly involved with him did.

Had another scenario at a previous work where a male colleague would make inappropriate comments to the younger female staff members. He didn't make the comments when others were around, so no one really saw the issue until three of the younger staff members came forward and let me know. No one else at the office had any idea that there was a problem, and I dealt with it discreetly with his manager ... no one at the office was none the wiser after the fact either.

Not that bullying and harassing specified employees is an issue to you anyway. But I would think inappropriate treatment of employees (specificed or not) is part and parcel of a 'toxic environment', again it doesn't have to be across the board.

This is football, not an office job. Sports rely on the interest and patronage of the fans to stay relevant, so it's only fair that said fans are kept informed and not subjected to corporate-speak bullshit when something goes wrong. This is why reasons for sacking a coach are usually widely known and publicly disseminated in a way that sacking an office worker would never be. 

They don't even have to say the exact reason if there are legal issues, but at least give us a general idea. "toxic culture" simply doesn't pass muster. 

Standard tactic. Anyone who isn't happy with the cover up by Gallop is by definition a supporter of bullying and harassment, eh?

BTW - you didn't answer the question about the survey in July.

Gee, you seem to have a lot of problems with the culture in your workforce.  Sounds like you need a survey. That environment sounds toxic. Is that you David?

At best, the situation is one where Gallop and the FFA have botched up the sacking and mishandled the situation.

At the very least, Gallop and the FFA need to put it clearly on record what has transpired to stop all this second guessing. The fact that Stajcic hasn’t said anything makes me think he is assessing his options.

I don't see why they would have paid him out if there was a serious offence that occurred that made an instant dismissal the only option. 

100% Burtzur

Something smells fishy, not because of WHAT happened, but the HOW

So given you have provided multiple examples of harassment occurring in teams you were responsible for, would you agree that you had created a toxic environment ... or just that some individuals behaved inappropriately?  Should you have been sacked?

Hush money. Pay him enough so he doesn’t put up a fight and there is no need for dirty laundry to be aired.

OK, so it seems the Our Watch survey was the main reason, as a large number of the players reported feeling stressed and being afraid to ask for support. Seems pretty weak tbh. 

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-22/matildas-environment-of-stress-and-fear/10734412

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-22/matildas-environment-of-stress-and-fear/10734412
 
Matildas coach sacked after quarter of players revealed they were afraid to ask for help
  By Tracey Holmes
Posted  22 Jan 2019, 11:25am      
Matildas face 'very, very tough' draw at women's World CupOne of the two key reports that contributed to the sacking of Matildas coach Alen Stajcic reveals a culture of fear and unacceptable levels of stress among the players.
Key points:

• The full Our Watch report is expected to be delivered to FFA headquarters this week
  
• There is no suggestion of sexual or physical impropriety from the surveys
  
• FFA CEO David Gallop said the surprise sacking of Stajcic was not based solely on the surveys
  

A quarter of the players who responded reported feeling psychological distress and many were afraid to seek support, believing it would be held against them. Players were asked a series of questions under specific headings including Health & Wellbeing, Psychological Distress, Psychological Safety and Player Insights. Fewer than 20 per cent of them said they felt the team environment was conducive to making them better players or people. The Matildas Wellbeing Audit was conducted jointly by Football Federation Australia and the players' union, the PFA, to ensure players had "access to world class support" to be able to perform at their best at the upcoming FIFA World Cup.The results, distributed to coaching staff and other key people in December, were to be discussed with players and officials in Sydney this week at a planned leadership conference. Alen Stajcic was supposed to be at the conference but soccer bosses felt they could no longer risk keeping him as coach. Stajcic's position became untenable after the FFA received the first instalment of a report by Our Watch — a group tasked to change cultural behaviour that underpins violence against women.By working with organisations to change entrenched attitudes to women, Our Watch hopes to positively impact the wider community.  
FFA criticised for not knowing cultural issues, acting too swiftly
While there is no suggestion of any sexual or physical impropriety in this case, the ABC understands the Our Watch report highlights a culturally unsustainable environment. The ABC has spoken extensively to parties involved in this case and has seen the Matildas Wellbeing Audit. FFA CEO David Gallop met with the Matildas on Monday to answer their concerns over the surprise axing of their coach.The governing body has been criticised in some circles for not knowing of the cultural issues, and criticised in others for acting too swiftly in cutting the head coach. "It's a misconception that the decision in relation to the head coach was solely based on surveys, it was based on a range of reasons and a range of information," Mr Gallop said." These matters are accumulative and there was a real view that things had deteriorated over a period of time … and that's why the decision was taken."Mr Gallop confirmed work on the Wellbeing Audit began in August 2018, looking specifically at the needs of Matildas players. The Our Watch survey was federation wide — players, coaches, and FFA staff. It is believed there were around 140 completed responses. While not directly addressing the work being done with the FFA, the CEO of Our Watch told ABC Newsradio the organisation's mandate is to stop violence before it happens. "We work collaboratively … to help other people change the cultures, norms and practices that disrespect or devalue women," Patty Kinnersly said. "Of course there are people who are resistant but not people we are working with. "People we are working with say, 'I understand this is an issue, I understand that I have influence', whether it's as a parent, or a coach, or a CEO, 'can you help me understand how I do that?' "Our Watch is currently reviewing the culture of a number of sporting organisations and Ms Kinnersly said sporting bodies were no different to any other. "What we find is whether it's a school, or a workplace or a sporting organisation, that they are representative of the community."
'Hardening up' is not the answer
Leadership expert Nicki Bowman, who is also a member of football advocacy group Women Onside, said leadership in the corporate world had changed in Australia while sport was slowly catching up. "What you need are leaders who create conditions for people to do their best work and whether that's in a corporate context or a sporting context it means the same thing," she said. "It means creating an environment where people are secure enough to perform at their best. "I'm really frustrated with the views around social media that people just need to harden up, you know this is elite sport and they just need to harden up and suck it up. "Matildas head coach Alen Stajcic speaks to the media at an official press conference.
Ms Bowman said most of the Matildas entered the program as teenagers with limited experience and ability to deal with stressful situations "Things you say to people at that age are far more formative and influential than they are if you said them to you or me with 20 or 30 years of experience," she said. The ABC contacted Stajcic on numerous occasions but was told he was unable to comment. It is understood to be for legal reasons. It is expected the full Our Watch report will be delivered to the FFA headquarters this week. The ABC understands there may be further fallout.

Arthur mate, get rid of that article. It destroys the formatting and is a real hassle to scroll through. 

So the ABC has a full copy of this supposedly confidential report that the players weren't allowed access to?  Very interesting way to run an organisation Mr Gallop.

So this seems to be the crux of it.
"A quarter of the players who responded reported feeling psychological distress and many were afraid to seek support, believing it would be held against them."
Other journos reporting that only a handful of the Matildas actually responded to the survey. So we might have possibly a couple of stressed players.  But somehow there is only a quarter who are distressed but MANY are afraid to speak out about their distress.  And obviously it is 'confidential' so we can't find out if this was Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord or just a couple of peripheral players who weren't cutting it so wanted to blame something for their woes.
This ABC piece looks like it was written by Our Watch media department.  No surprise it was leaked to 'Their ABC'.

"Fewer than 20 per cent of them said they felt the team environment was conducive to making them better players or people."

This is worrying, but in and of itself doesn't seem enough to sack the coach, especially without warning or a chance to fix it. Obviously this means that a lot of the players who cam out in support of Staj weren't thrilled with the environment, but didn't think they're comments would be used as grounds for dismissal.

Although a question that popped into my head as I read this is what scale did they use for the above question? Is there a neutral midpoint option i.e. "I think the team environment is conducive to making me a better player" on a scale of "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree", with "neither agree nor disagree" as the midpoint option. Conceivably the majority chose the last option, especially if they didn't take the survey that seriously. 

"The full Our Watch report is expected to be delivered to FFA headquarters this week"

Uhhh what.

-PB

It also indicates that, through the involvement of 'Our Watch', that the FFA believed the environment of the Matilda's was disrespectful and harmful to women - pretty bold claim to make, especially when so many players, including superstars such as Sam Kerr, have come out in support of their former coach. Can't have been too disrespectful if he had a whole team of women willing to work with him.

Excellent point - if there was a neutral option, then it is disingenuous for the reporter of this article to then infer that 80% of the survey respondents were dissatisfied, when that may not have been the case at all and most players were neither upset or elated by the Matilda's environment - it's just there.

"A quarter of the players who responded reported feeling psychological distress and many were afraid to seek support, believing it would be held against them."

This is worrying, but also doesn't directly implicate the coaching staff for anything other than not actively fostering an environment that was supportive.

"Ms Bowman said most of the Matildas entered the program as teenagers with limited experience and ability to deal with stressful situations"

This is a good point, and something you'd hope the coaching staff would take into account considering how often teenagers are selected, but again, it seems more negligence than active decision making fostering a hostile environment.

The only explanation I can come up with for the board's decision at this point is that they brought these issues up with Staj (with whatever level of detail) and he told them to shove it and there was nothing wrong with his approach, so the board reacted by sacking him. All these problems seem like things you just tell him to change rather than immediately fire him for.

Does the reporter have the full report or is this all that was leaked to them?

I bet they say they can't clarify how many Matildas actually responded ... because of confidentiality reasons. But it's being reported as "a handful".

Gallop: "So Staj, have you stopped psychologically distressing your team yet."
Stajcic: "Go F--- yourself"
Gallop: "You're fired."

Oh man this is a can of worms, a lawyers picnic and it seems like footbal,l will be the first in a long line of sports bodies that have gotten Our Watch in for an audit.
So the survey was sent Federation wide - coaches, players and staff. Only 140 responses? Does that seem like a high response rate? And being an option to respond - i.e. it wasnt compulsory, so you already introduce elements of bias into it.
And Our Watch - agree with them or not - is an advocacy group - they are not organisational behaviour experts or scientists or even experts in their field. They have an Agenda - any group with an Agenda wont be unbiased experts.
And they sacked him without 1. Having the full report from Our Watch - WTF and 2. Before they had had a workshop to discuss the findings.
This seems like FFA was told of summary findings by a biased organisation and maybe in fear of the metoo movement sacked the coach without proper due process.
Many will be reluctant to publicly challenge the findings of the Our Watch report from a logical and due process point of view - in this current #Metoo environment but I'm sure Stajic will find a good enough employment lawyer somewhere to rip FFA to shreds.
That said, there are some disturbing findings in that ABC report but not enough IMO to sack a coach in a way like that. It says he worked in Woman's football for 20 years and now his career is destroyed.
A can of worms I say.

'psychological distress' !?

I read Hiddink didn't name the team until just hours before a game at the 2006 WC.  Wonder how that type of 'distress' would play out these days.

Well yes.  The first thing I'd be saying when fronted by some mob that hasn't a clue about elite sport, not that I do either, is 'what the fuck do they know about elite sport to tell me how I should be training my players'.

It sounds like this is exactly what happened. They did give him a warning. They brought him in and outlined their problems with the culture, and asked him to address the issues in the future. By all accounts, he basically told them to get fucked and stormed out. If that is what happened, I would have sacked him too.