Former A-League championship coach Ernie Merrick is taking Football Australia to court, claiming his dismissal from a high-ranking technical role earlier this year was “targeted and unlawful”.

Merrick was appointed FA’s inaugural chief football officer in mid-2022 , a powerful new position from which he was to oversee the “transformation” of Australia’s on-field direction and act as a “disruptor” in the football development space, in the words of former chief executive James Johnson.

But the former Melbourne Victory, Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets coach was shown the door in acrimonious circumstances by FA in July, with his position made redundant – a decision that a spokesperson for FA previously told this masthead was made because it wanted to pursue a more “collaborative an

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