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Something odd is going on inside Swim England’s Water Polo Development Team, time for answers! - September 27, 2019

In the light of the current disquiet about the way in which Swim England is failing to manage water polo in England, it has been brought to our attention by members of the water polo community that one of Swim England’s water polo development staff appears to have another role as the Managing Director of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF).

When Swim England welcomed Mr Andy Fuller to the organisation as Water Polo Development Manager in August 2018, (https://www.swimming.org/waterpolo/swim-england-welcomes-andy-fuller-water-polo-development-manager) it was stated that he had joined Swim England from his role as Managing Director of IFAF, and it was reasonably assumed that the appointment to replace the previous full time incumbent Suzy Stevenson would again be a full-time position with Swim England.

However a little digging reveals that the IFAF site’s contact page, as of 26 Sept 2019, records a Mr Andy Fuller in post as Managing Director of the International Federation of American Football within the IFAF staff section of the page. You might say that this simply reflects a website which is out-of-date, until you view the video below of the IFAF Conference for the presentation of the American Football European U19 Championships which streamed live on 21st May 2019. At 23 minutes into the clip, a certain Mr Andy Fuller welcomes us to the launch of the IFAF U19 event, clearly discharging his leadership role within the organisation in May of this year.

And there’s more, in Feb 2019 Mr Andy Fuller was commenting publicly as the MD of IFAF to the press in connection with the inaugural IFAF World U20 Championships, in May he was representing IFAF at a FIDAF event, and most recently in connection with an international American Football event held Aug 29- Sept 1st 2019 in Israel, Mr Andy Fuller was described as the ‘Managing Director IFAF’ and as a ‘Key Contact’ for the event. A scan of the key documents on the IFAF website all reveal Mr Andy Fuller at the heart of the action.

So, if we assume as a working proposition that the Mr Andy Fuller who is the MD of IFAF, is the same Mr Andy Fuller who is also Swim England’s Water Polo Development Manager, why does it matter? Arguably for a few good reasons!

Given that a simple Google search has revealed all this information, it seems almost inconceivable that Swim England could have been unaware that Mr Andy Fuller was, and is, Managing Director of the International Federation of American Football. (Although to be fair to Swim England, if this is the first that Swim England has heard of the matter then the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn is that the Swim England Human Resources Dept is incompetent, and there has been a complete failure in matters of due diligence…so not exactly off the hook then.)

If however Swim England knew of, and authorised, Mr Fuller’s simultaneous employment as England Water Polo Development Manager and engagement as Managing Director of the International Federation of American Football whether expressly or otherwise, it may therefore be inferred that at some stage Swim England clearly decided that the post of England Water Polo Development Manager was so spectacularly unimportant that it could easily be discharged by someone who also had another time-consuming role; one which involved leading a international major sporting organisation.

It also matters because Swim England failed to advise anyone in the England water polo community, including the Water Polo Management Group, that their Water Polo Development Manager was also being allowed to act as MD of IFAF, whether because Swim England considered that the community would respond badly to publicity about the arrangement, or alternatively because Swim England simply does not care 2 hoots for the opinion of the community.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, there is the matter of a potential conflict of interest, and in particular the risk of a potential financial conflict of interest. In the last funding cycle it was Swim England who drafted the failed application for Sport England funding for water polo, and the then-Water Polo Development Manager was central to that drafting. It is reasonable to assume that Mr Andy Fuller as the incumbent Water Polo Development Manager would again be central to future applications for sport funding on behalf of England Water Polo, whether from Sport England or other funding bodies, and yet presumably his other organisation, IFAF, or the relevant IFAF-English affiliated organisation would also be applying for funds from potentially the same funding bodies, but for the sport of American Football.

In other words, American Football which Mr Fuller leads would potentially be in competition with Water Polo for monies from the same pot. Without transparency about the roles which Mr Fuller holds, how can the water polo community or the relevant grant-making bodies which include Sport England and potentially UK Sport be confident that no conflict exists?

Unfortunately as with many aspects of the Swim England organisation we are left with more questions than answers, and now look to the organisation for their response.