01/12/2025
The EA saga continues…..
FED-UP EQUESTRIANS DRAGGED BACK TO THE POLLS AS EQUESTRIAN AS GOVERNANCE CRISIS DEEPENS
The peak body for horse sports in Australia, Equestrian Australia (EA), has been thrown back into turmoil, with members being asked to overthrow the board at a Special General Meeting (SGM) next month. The shake-up has reignited bitter tensions over proposed reforms to the sport’s governance.
The meeting, to be held on December 11, will be the third attempt this year to force a vote to dislodge the largely independent board. Two earlier petitions collapsed on procedural grounds.
This one will now go ahead. Members will be asked to vote on motions to remove four independent directors - a move viewed by many as an attempt to prevent proposed changes to the structure of the sport’s administration.
Veering on the edge of bankruptcy, the troubled sporting body was placed into voluntary administration in 2020, after its financial backer, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), withdrew funding. It did this following years of turmoil within the board, which was controlled by the state branches of the sporting body.
The outcome of the administration process resolved to restructure the governance of the sport. To date, no meaningful progress has been made.
Senior sports administrator and former Olympian George Sanna said if the vote succeeds, “it will be a serious step backwards for the sport.”
“We have a “once-in-a-generation opportunity' to ensure members' money is not squandered on needless duplication of administration which we have today,” Sanna said.
“Voting Independent board members off the board at next month's meeting will stop any chance of meaningful reform,” he said.
The vote comes at a time when the sport can least absorb more instability.
Two months ago, the ASC stepped into the long-running and often toxic dispute between EA and the state branches. The ASC warned all parties to “take the heat out” of the conflict and work towards a cooperative, agreed-upon outcome.
While the EA Board appeared to heed that advice, but the SGM to remove the four board members is seen by some as running counter to the spirit of the ASC’s direction.
This latest upheaval could put the sport squarely at odds with the expectations of its largest funding partner, the ASC.
One area of dispute is the IT contract awarded earlier this year, following a year-long, independently overseen tender process to build a new platform. A large number of providers tendered for the contract.
The former provider, Nominate, which had long supplied EA’s platform, was unsuccessful. The contract went instead to sports-management platform Just Go, a move that angered a part of the membership. Many now believe disquiet over that decision sits behind the push for this month’s SGM.
The optics have alarmed a part of the membership who fear the sport is being dragged back into a cycle of dysfunction and a lack of trust.
Nominate founder Lloyd Raleigh, who has been the public face of the SGM push, insists he is “simply facilitating” a member-led meeting and rejects claims he is motivated by losing the IT tender.
“I can only really speak for myself. I can’t give reasons for the 1400 odd members that signed up to it,” he said. “I want to make it really clear that this SGM is not about me or my reasons. I’m just facilitating, I guess, the SGM on behalf of members.”
Asked directly about criticism that he is driving the process because Nominate did not win EA’s IT tender, Raleigh was blunt. “No, that’s absolutely incorrect,” he said. “I can’t force 1400 members to vote to say that they want an SGM.”
Raleigh said his own dissatisfaction stems from two key areas, both of which he says sit under “the heading of culture” - financial management and a board he believes has become “out of touch” with members.
Veteran horseman Uli Klatte has long advocated for a unified national database instead of what he describes as Australia’s current patchwork of disconnected systems.
“We have that many databases in Australia, all over the place, but nothing talks to each other and that we want to address, that we get a picture of the whole equine industry," Klatte said.
Klatte’s group, Equiprove, also participated in the tender but was unsuccessful. He argues the winning product is not suitable for the complexity of equestrian sport.
“They had a very good marketing team, and a professional marketing team which sold them,” he said, adding: “I think they [EA] thought it was wonderful what they’re getting, and they really didn’t look into matters properly.”
According to its website, JustGo is an all-in-one sports membership and club management platform used by more than three million members worldwide. It serves national governing bodies and sports clubs across many disciplines - from gymnastics and rowing to canoeing and athletics.
For ordinary members, the potential implications of a new board reconsidering the IT contract are significant. Any attempt to overturn or interfere with the JustGo contract would likely expose EA to costly litigation, draining resources away from core responsibilities.
Apart from the IT issue, some members are also concerned that a successful vote to remove all the independent board members at the SGM could result in vacancies being filled by state branch representation.
This has the potential to return to the system that led to EA losing its funding and entering voluntary administration in 2020 after many years of dysfunction.
The outcome of the voluntary administration was to remove the power the state branches held over the EA board. That control was handed to members through the “One Member One Vote” principle.
“The future of equestrian activity at both grassroots and elite levels depends on stable governance, transparent decision-making and a cooperative national structure,” Sanna said.
“With federal funding potentially at risk and the prospect of litigation, fragmentation and renewed instability all now in play, members have every reason to be concerned. If this collapses again, it’s not the boardroom warriors who will suffer - it’s the sport,” he said.
By Samantha Mgnusson
Photo: Equestrian Australia
Australia Sports Commission Riding Club
