The Belgian Football Association has fired CEO Peter Bossaert after a nightly crisis meeting. The breach of trust after reports of an annual bonus was too great. A typical mistake of a CEO, says sports journalist Hans Vandeweghe: ‘Bossaert was overplaying his hand.’
Is CEO Peter Bossaert’s dismissal the expected outcome of yesterday’s crisis meeting?
“I’m not shocked, though. I thought that Peter Bossaert had done a good job, but there were a number of issues. There were signs that he was overplaying his hand. With the Veljkovic case, he forced a board member of the Profliga to resign. He is in conflict with the Profliga about the malfunctioning of the VAR.”
“In addition, he played too much solo smart when the new trainer was appointed. In such a Board of Directors you have to see that you don’t antagonize too many people.”
“So now he has been fired, and this could have been avoided. He should have pampered the board members more and should have known what was going on. Moreover, if the national team had performed better and earned more money for the association, nothing might have happened.”
What is the exact reason for his dismissal?
“It is supposedly about that variable bonus of 100,000 euros that he received. He would have overplayed his hand. The Board of Directors has now found a stick to strike with. They always find it if they want, but he has now provided a very sturdy one.”
“Chairman Paul Van den Bulck, himself a lawyer, has requested legal advice on that matter and thinks that mistakes were made in the bonus addendum to Bossaert’s contract, other legal advice from the football association contradicts that. It is therefore strange that there is still a lot of uncertainty about this.”
“Of course we have to be careful here, there may be more going on than we know at the moment. Bossaert has also been under fire for some time for the expenditure of the football association. For example, he approved a large staff for the national team and he has provided a beautiful but expensive building in Tubize. He defends that expenditure by saying it is for the national teams. If the Red Devils had made it to the semi-finals in Qatar, that might have been over.”
Did the relationship between CEO Bossaert and RBFA chairman Van den Bulck play a role here?
“Lately they were no longer on the same page, including with the appointment of the new national coach. But I really don’t know about that. It is clear that Bossaert has antagonized too many forces at the same time: Voetbal Vlaanderen, the association chairman, the Profliga. If they all look together for a reason for dismissal, it is quickly found.”
“It is striking that Van den Bulck is now co-responsible for the dismissal of Bossaert, but was put forward by him less than a year ago. That man had an ideal profile: perfectly bilingual and a migration background. In addition, he was a lawyer and had no association with any club. He had been asked as an independent director. For example, you only have two on that Board of Directors, there should actually be more to be able to compete with the rest.”
Where did this dissatisfaction within the Board of Directors come from?
“The board of directors also includes representatives from Antwerp, Standard, OH Leuven and Anderlecht, so the professional clubs, and also from Voetbal Vlaanderen and the Walloon counterpart ACFF. Those lower clubs and the professional clubs have been looking at all those expenses for the national teams and the functioning of the association with dissatisfaction for some time. Incidentally, Voetbal Vlaanderen has convened that Board of Directors. Bossaert has not covered himself enough. That is a typical mistake of a CEO of a sports association: not knowing what is going on with those directors and being insensitive to their complaints.”
“The background of such a conflict is actually always the same in the European sports federation model. Whether it is the national or even provincial football association or, for example, the International Olympic Committee, you always have conflicts between the elected members of the board of directors and the professionals of the staff.”
“Such a board of directors doesn’t meet often and doesn’t really know what it’s all about, while the salaried staff is professionally involved in this every day. Nevertheless, the board of directors wants to monitor the day-to-day operation and help decide, while on paper it only has to exercise control. The sports federations in the US, for example, are composed much more professionally, they have a structure that is very similar to a company.”
How harmful is this situation for the Football Association?
“This does not have to be very harmful. It is possible that the staff who had Peter Bossaert as boss would not agree with this. They clearly saw that power struggle coming and saw their boss lose. Let’s wait and see what their reaction will be, but I don’t see an uprising happening immediately.”
“This will probably get a tail end from a legal point of view. The CEO has been fired with immediate effect, so they have to charge him with a gross misconduct – a so-called urgent cause – so that he will not receive a severance payment. Unless they agree to an out-of-court settlement, this is a matter that will go to the labor tribunal. Bossaert will have a clause in his contract about compensation in the event of dismissal.”
Does this cast a shadow over the Red Devils and the new national coach, a day before the first match of the European Championship qualification?
“They are not going to care much about this from a sporting point of view. Bossaert has only recently appointed Domenico Tedesco and Frank Vercauteren as new national coach and technical director, but Tedesco is not going to say that he does not want to coach this match. It may be a shock for Vercauteren, although there is also a chance that Bossaert warned him that this was coming.”
“Perhaps this will reach the technical staff, but the players themselves are not concerned with this at all. In principle, they just want to play football and win matches.”
