The Resignation The Sport Had To Have

In November of 1990 with Australia in a recession the former Prime Minister of Australia, who was at that time the Treasurer, Paul Keating, uttered the famous line “this is a recession that Australia had to have.”

On Monday of last week Hockey Australia announced that its CEO Matt Favier had resigned and that the Board had accepted his resignation. To many in Hockey circles this was a resignation that Hockey Australia had to have.

There are many speculating whether he was pushed or whether this was a decision of his own making. We shall never know. If he was asked to resign then some can argue that the Board has let him leave with dignity. If he was pushed there are many wondering why it has taken so long for the resignation to eventuate.

While the Board has understandably tried to highlight the positives of his time with Hockey Australia; as after all it was the Board that appointed him. The general feeling is that he was never a good fit for the sport, and that the sport was only ever a stop-gap until something better came along. He was never going to stay in Hockey for the long term.

What is telling is looking back at Mr Favier’s career and one sees a pattern whereby he tends to move jobs every 3-4 years. HIs stint at Uk Athletics being the longest in recent times where he was employed from 2003-2009. Prior to that role he was employed with Athletics Australia (1994-1996), Western Sydney Academy of Sport (1997-1998), Soccer Australia (1998-1999), the Australian Paralympic Committee (1999-2000), and the Queensland Academy of Sport (2000-2003). After his six years with UK Athletics he moved to UK Sport (2009-2012). He then returned to Australia and was appointed Director at the Australian Institute of Sport in 2012. He held this position for five years but one of his legacies was the “Winning Edge” Program.

This was Introduced in 2012 after Australia’s poor showing at the London Olympic Games. Winning Edge was developed to create “consistent and sustainable success”, “greater levels of accountability” and “improved governance structures” heading towards the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

As soon as it was released it was criticised. One of those to speak out to the ABC was the Australian Olympic Committee’s Mike Tancred who was quoted as saying

“They’ve put all their money into the big sports and the smaller sports have been marginalised. It’s going to be extremely difficult for Winning Edge to achieve its goal of a top-five finish because we’re not going to win medals across a big enough spread of sports,” Tancred said.

Despite the criticism Favier was convinced that this was the right approach. He wrote, “All pre-Olympic analysis – ours at the AIS, the Australian Olympic Committee’s, and independent international predictions – points to an improvement on the gold medal tally in Rio. It would be the first improvement since Athens 2004.” He did however try to cover that bullish view by stating that Winning Edge should not be judged solely on Australia’s performance in Rio.

Australia finished tenth on the Medal table in Rio with 29 medals (8 gold, 11 silver, and 10 bronze). This was the nation’s lowest medal tally and lowest ranking since the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where Australia also ranked tenth, but only won 27 medals. The criticism of Winning Edge became even stronger and the relationship between the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Olympic Committee had become openly aggressive. In June 2017 Favier resigned and ended up as the CEO of Hockey Australia, stating at the time that he wanted to return to “the coalface” of Australian sport.

Yet like the landed gentry of yesteryear who owned the coal mines, but rarely ventured underground, the modern day sports administrator often is also a very long way away from the actual ‘coalface.’ In this case some 3,406km from the coalface when it came to the high performance unit.

At the time of his appointment rumours abounded that he had been parachuted into the role with Hockey Australia. The Australian Sports Commission to which Favier was strongly aligned had been behind the challenge to John Coates Presidency of the Australian Olympic Committee and the relationship once he was re-elected became ugly. That, and Winning Edge’s failure to deliver meant that something had to give… Cam Vale’s resignation as CEO of Hockey Australia was the perfect opening for Matt Favier to leave behind the debris of the Winning Edge program and still keep his reputation in tact.

He appeared a strange fit for Hockey. As he prepares to leave there will still be questions asked as to whether he understood the game, the people who played it, and its rich history. Did he ever have an empathy for the sport?

Ironically at the time of his appointment he walked into a sport that had suffered as a result of his Winning Edge program. Hockey’s funding had been heavily cut when both the Kookaburras and the Hockeyroos failed to medal in Rio.

Those in business will tell you that he didn’t need to know the sport, that wasn’t his job, and that only the board and the CEO will know what his mission was. Judging by the Press release put out by Hockey Australia they felt that he had ticked some of those boxes and quoted some of his key achievements. Yet ultimately in the world of sport you are judged on the legacy that you leave behind, not on the words in a press statement.

When Matt Favier came into the role as CEO, Hockey Australia was already one of the key nations that were part of the planning for the International Hockey Federation’s new global hockey League, The FIH Pro League. In fact the teams for the new league were announced the month that he started in the role. So the costs that have resulted from Australia being a part of this competition cannot be laid at his feet. They would no doubt have been challenging, as the travel involved for Australia and the lack of an airline as a travel partner would have meant that the costs to participate would have been extremely high. The question needing to be asked being whether the money being spent was the best investment for the long term future of the sport? If the answer was yes, then what was the strategy to cover those costs without impacting on those playing the sport nationally and affecting development of the next generation?

While the decision on Australia’s participation in the FIH Pro League fell outside of his time as CEO the Hockey One League was created on his watch. This was a re-modelling of the almost 100 year old Australian Hockey League. (Whose Idea Was It?) The decision was made to push ahead with this despite the recommendation from the Australian Sports Commission not to change what already existed. The reason for the remodelling we were all advised was that this was going to result in the players being paid to play, that it would generate revenue for the sport, and attract new fans.

Unfortunately after one season the league had to be put in mothballs due to the Covid 19 Pandemic, but as with the Pro League questions were already being raised in relation to its viability. The sponsorship revenue generated was not enough to cover costs, and certainly not enough to result in players being paid. In addition the television coverage did not reflect the quality on the pitch. Now as plans for the competition to go ahead post the Tokyo Olympics there are still major concerns. Many of the International players are believed to be heading to Europe to play, so the league will lose those drawcard players. If the Australian teams medal in Tokyo the chance to ride on that wave of emotion will be diminished. There are concerns amongst the players, who are amateurs, in relation to flying around the country every week to play, and the possibility of being stranded in another state should the borders be closed. Will their employers understand? However the Prime MInister’s recent announcement may have gone some way to quell those fears.

Sadly however the thing that Mr Favier will be remembered for most during his time as CEO of Hockey Australia will be the disastrous handling of the problems within the Hockeyroos which played out in the public domain at the end of 2020 and into 2021. Ironically on his Linked In profile at the time of writing he features a picture of the Hockeyroos! This was a public relations nightmare for the sport. It was also why many believed that his position had become untenable. (Paying a Price For The Past?)

When the players spoke out about the situation the CEO openly backed the High Performance Director, the head coach and the selection process for the Hockeyroos squad. He publicly stated there was no need for a review. When the review came out he, his management team and the board came under heavy criticism. The High Performance Director and the Coach resigned. Then following a long drawn out appeal process an independent appeals tribunal “found due reason to oppose the duo’s (Rachael Lynch and Georgina Morgan) non-selection after considering material provided by both parties.”

Publicly, his comments rather than calming the flames of discontent fanned them. Clearly here was a man who was either not being given, or was not listening to advice on the messaging that needed to be promoted when talking to the media. As it appeared every time he opened his mouth he poured salt on an festering wound.

His resignation was expected. He had lost the respect of the players within the high performance unit as well as that of past players and many fans of the game. The sport once again sees another CEO leave at the end of an Olympic Cycle, an unfortunate and disrupting occurrence. (The Four Year Cycle, Is It Holding Back Sport?)

However in this instant, to many within the sport his resignation is the resignation the sport had to have in order to move forward.