Creditors of Equestrian Australia (EA) currently in Voluntary Administration, have accepted the recommendations put forward by the Administrators, KordaMentha, at an online meeting on July 14th 2020
The creditors, many of which are members of the embattled sporting governing body that has experienced management and constitutional problems in recent years, passed the Administrator’s proposed Deed of Company Arrangement and approved the appointment of a Committee of Inspection
Mr Brian Silvia, Mr Chris Webb, Ms Julia Bland, Mr George Sanna, Mr Ron Fleming, Nominate Pty Ltd (represented by Mr Lloyd Raleigh), the ASC (represented by Ms Kate Corkery) were appointed as members of the Committee of Inspection.
Five state branches of Equestrian Australia (NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia) had opposed the Administrator’s recommendations and put forward their own Deed of Arrangement, which was not passed
Under the approved deed of company arrangement, EA must now call a special meeting of its six state representatives to consider the constitutional amendments required. Should the amendments be be passed, a nominations committee will create a skills-based interim board within 45 days. Any EA board member who has served in the past three years will not be eligible for the interim board
Once appointed, the new board of Equestrian Australia will hopefully be aiming to re-gain the confidence of its members and recover the Sport Australia funding previously taken away due to EA’s governance having ‘in recent times fallen well short of acceptable standards’
The FEI has supported the Administrators in their work so far and EA ‘remains temporarily the only National Governing Body recognised by the FEI for the FEI Disciplines in Australia awaiting the outcome of the Voluntary Administration’
Once the new structure is in place the FEI will evaluate ‘whether EA fulfils the requirements to maintain its membership within the FEI’, an essential part of maintaining Equestrian Australia’s Olympic affiliation to compete at next year’s Tokyo Games.
