Equestrian Australia enters voluntary administration
The Board of Equestrian Australia has taken the difficult decision to place Equestrian Australia Ltd into voluntary administration.
KordaMentha has been appointed as the Administrator.
The move comes after Sports Australia’s decision to withdraw funding until Equestrian Australia Ltd demonstrates stability in governance and operation and that our organisation is representative of our members.
Combined with the impact of COVID-19 on our forecast revenue, that has placed EA at risk of trading insolvently.
The operations of EA will continue without change at this stage and there is no planned loss of jobs.
Our objective is to move forward to a more cohesive, and effective future.
In order to protect the Equestrian Olympic program and athletes, the High-Performance program will immediately be transferred to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and funding returned to them. However, The High-Performance Panel will remain in place at EA, and the program will continue unabated in pursuit of Equestrian Gold at the upcoming Olympics.
Board Spokesperson, John Glenn, said the situation was disappointing, but the current EA operating model clearly did not work.
“We have faced overwhelming challenges as an organisation over the past few years, but this EA board is unified and committed to a fresh start. This now is an opportunity for real change to rebuild the sport for current athletes and future generations.
“In our sport of so many diverse interests, rarely do our branches, committees, and members share a cohesive view.
Disagreement, however, should not be destructive. The goal is for EA to rebuild as a viable, representative, democratic and stable national sporting organisation – and return to a focus on sport as quickly as possible,” Mr Glenn said.
Craig Shepard and Kate Conneely of KordaMentha have been appointed Voluntary Administrators.
We have reached out to the 18,000 grassroots members of Equestrian Australia to update them on developments and also to seek their views about what a sustainable, safe and successful EA looks like going forward.
Source: Equestrian Australia media release
READ THE LATEST NEWS ARTICLES HERE
