Former Kiwi international Leo Bertos hopes his axing from Northern NSW Football for what he believes is an unfair label of "serious misconduct" does not stop him from returning to a full-time role in the game.
Bertos was sacked as acting technical director of NNSWF on January 15 after accepting the head coaching role at NNSW NPL club Weston. NNSWF believed the appointment created a conflict of interest, given the federation administers the NPL, and he would not have time to still do his job.
He filed an unfair dismissal case with the Fair Work Commission (FWC), which ruled in favour of NNSWF.
Bertos said he accepted the Weston role because he wanted to complete the elite coaching pro diploma, which requires at least NPL level coaching, after failing to gain the TD position permanently. NNSWF supported his application for the course.
The NNSWF technical advisor, Bertos had stepped up to the acting TD role after the brief tenure of Clayton Zane late last year. Bertos also filled in for 10 months when Michael Browne left in February 2019. NNSWF encouraged Bertos to apply for the TD role, which he did, but he was unsuccessful.
He believed a pro licence would help his chances next time so he explored local coaching options outside the NPL without success before telling NNSWF head of football Peter Haynes on December 3 about the Weston job. Haynes and NNSWF chief David Eland advised Bertos, in writing and verbally, several times against taking it.
Bertos confirmed to Eland on January 4 he had taken the role. He was stood down two days later and issued a letter entitled 'potential termination of employment - opportunity to show cause' on January 10 in which NNSWF said his actions "amounted to serious misconduct".
He attended a meeting on January 14 and argued his ability to do both roles. He was sacked the next day.
He said his case was about removing the stain of "serious misconduct", which he feared would hurt his chances of another job in football.
"I don't think I deserve that," Bertos said. "Serious misconduct can mean a lot of things and I don't think this categorises in the same situation as a lot of those.
"Although I can understand how the judge got to the outcome, I still feel the situation isn't fair. I just feel like I've genuinely not tried to do anything wrong by anyone."
Bertos spoke to the Newcastle Herald to clear the air over his departure.
"I really did enjoy my job and I put a lot more time into it than maybe I should have, but you're passionate about the game and you want to make a difference," he said. "I just wanted to thank a lot of people because in my time working there, in coaching and youth development, I've come across thousands of people in the game and a lot locally who I see regularly.
"I wanted people to know what happened because a lot are under the impression I just left and moved on."
He coached at the Jets academy in 2019 and played NPL with Olympic in 2018, both while at NNSWF. He believed that showed he could do dual roles.
"I was advised to not take it, but I did it the year before and I played the year before that, and it's to help me get the pro diploma, which is to help me with my job," he said. "People can work around that if they want to, and that should be the game. People should work together better to help each other in these situations.
"I don't want to undermine [NNSWF]. That was never my intention. And the irony is I was trying to better myself to better the organisation, to be better qualified.
"People can look at it different ways but it doesn't bother me what they come up with because I know in my heart what my intentions were and what happened."
Eland was asked for comment but he was content to refer to evidence given at the FWC, which included that he considered Bertos "to be a good performer and valued employee" before accepting the Weston role.
In the decision, FWC deputy president Tony Saunders concluded: "Sometimes personal ambition clouds reasonable judgment. This is such a case. Mr Bertos's ambition to coach football at the highest level has resulted in him being unable to appreciate that taking on the role of Head Coach of Weston FC was not in Northern's best interests and would have conflicted with his duties and obligations to Northern."
"Northern had a valid reason for Mr Bertos's dismissal. It followed a fair and reasonable process before making a decision to bring Mr Bertos's employment to an end."
Bertos said: "I knew what was in my contract and the advice I was given but I didn't think it was that big of a deal to lose my job for it until I got to that meeting [on January 14]. That made me question it and then I tried to show I could do it but obviously that wasn't enough."
He remains unemployed but hopes to find another full-time job in the game. He believes any chance will likely mean a move away from the region, given the limited opportunities in the sport.
"That's my passion, my love," he said of football.
"That's what I'd like to do and I'm qualified to be in the game, so I'm going to pursue that.
"In the meantime I'm coaching at Weston. It's why I've lost my job but it's been really good to be out there coaching as well to take your mind off it. It's been really helpful."
Bertos said gaining the TD role at NNSWF had been a "personal goal".
"I had the A-licence and I was looking at going to the next stage in that, the pro diploma," he said.
"The previous two TDs had the diploma so I thought that could be a good option if I wanted to try and land that role, to get that licence.
"Northern actually supported me with that application with a letter of support but from what I understand they didn't realise you needed to coach to get through the course, so I was looking at all avenues to do that."
Bertos said he looked at positions with the Jets but the required travel for the roles and a lack of openings meant "the only one that was remaining was the NPL, which is the minimum level required to coach at to do the pro diploma, so that's what I explored."
"Unfortunately the federation didn't really support that, working in there and coaching in the competition, they see that as huge conflict.
"They don't encourage it any of the roles but you could argue that it's maybe happening or it's been done before.
"That's why I thought it was unfair because I was just trying to further my development and education in football."
In the FWC decision, Eland gave evidence that he had in mind a potential part-time coaching role for Bertos with the Jets or with an Australian national juniors team, if time permitted.
However, Bertos told the Herald: "They were going to explore opportunities for me to do the course, but they didn't do it and there aren't any. I'd already explored all those avenues myself."
As for the time constraints around doing both roles, Bertos said: "The previous year I coached in the Jets academy while I was the acting TD and that commitment was a lot more than the Weston role. They were training four nights a week plus a game, every week for 40 to 42 weeks of the year. The Weston role is two to three nights a week plus a game, and it's about 30 weeks.
"And if I was working when a game was on, the assistant coach would cover. Work was the priority. For some reason, that wasn't enough for them."
