Coutts blames clash with Bertarelli for his sacking from Alinghi

1.00pm

Russell Coutts, who was today sacked by Alinghi, said he had been unhappy with the team's management style and direction for some time.

Alinghi said he was fired from the America's Cup team for repeatedly "violating his duties" and said it had no choice.

Coutts was notified of his sacking by phone.

Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli refused to comment further after a statement was released.

But Coutts revealed this morning that there had been a series of meetings between the team and his lawyers and a period of mediation.

He said in a statement: "I was surprised to receive a brief phone call from Ernesto Bertarelli's lawyers apparently immediately followed by a media release issued by Mr Bertarelli's staff."

"The facts are that some time ago I had made it very clear to Ernesto Bertarelli that I had some very real concerns about aspects of his management style and the direction of the team."

The concerns were based on Coutts' experience as a skipper and in a leadership role in his last three America's Cup campaigns.

"They centred on aspects of management that I had found in my own leadership experience to be successful."

Coutts said in the course of working with Bertarelli, he was surprised to find the team owner repeatedly made it clear he wanted to depart from previously agreed commitments.

" Most seriously, I was concerned at the impact of this management style not just on my contract, but on the wider America's Cup event," he said in the statement sent to NZPA today.

"I found the role he increasingly insisted I occupy in the syndicate was at considerable variance with the one we had discussed at length during and since the last America's Cup campaign.

"This and other issues were clear breaches of the contract I had entered into with him," said Coutts, who steered Alinghi to a 5-0 cup victory over Team New Zealand last year.

The two had attempted to address these issues through mediation that Coutts had understood to be still underway.

"In light of this, I have been surprised by the way he has first insisted on a rule change and then by his decision to issue my dismissal."

Coutts refused to helm Alinghi in Newport, Rhode Island, and had also refused to sail with the Team Alinghi crew at recent regattas in Sweden, Italy and Portugal, where the regattas were about to commence.

"This constitutes a clear violation of his employment contract," the team said.

"Furthermore, in various press statements made early July, he declared that he was no longer part of the Alinghi Team."

The team statement said it was also particularly damaging that Coutts was involved in the planning and development of a new race series which was incompatible with his responsibilities and duties.

"In his capacity as a member of the board of Alinghi Holdings, Russell Coutts manoeuvred himself into an inextricable conflict of interest.

"As a result, Alinghi had no recourse but to terminate its co-operation with Russell Coutts, effective immediately," Alinghi said.

Coutts seems unlikely to join Team New Zealand after Team NZ boss Grant Dalton described the sacking as "completely irrelevant to us".

"I am aware of it but I have got no position or comment," Dalton said.

However, he said the sacking was not a surprise. "It's been on the go probably for about a year," he said.

British journalist Tim Jeffrey says the turn of events was unexpected, even for Coutts.

The Daily Telegraph writer says the crisis between Alinghi and Coutts had reached a crescendo over the last few weeks and the sacking brings a year long dispute to a close.

He believes money was not an issue for Coutts who felt he was being blocked out of matters in which he believes he had so much to offer.

He says one of the sad aspects of the saga is that other New Zealand team members are deeply disillusioned because the success they have enjoyed as sailors has come from being an integral part of Coutts' team.

Mr Jeffrey says friendships have been strained but he expects the other New Zealanders will stay with Alinghi and that in a strange way, will be super-motivated to remain a strong team.

- HERALD STAFF, NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB