Igor Shpilband fired

let`s talk said:

I don't care much in fact. It's boring. The whole story with silly firing looks childish and stupid. Don't they have any Labour Laws in US? The obviously don't. To fire someone without any valid reason is what? A norm? Probably not. But they know he won't sue, so they are doing what they are doing. It makes me puke.

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Sorry your stomach is so weak that a "firing" would cause vomit.

When it comes to sports in the US, if a coach is felt to be doing something unethical or not doing his best, he can be fired midseason, post season, or pre season. This is no different than any other sport. It's a shock, but it happens.

Shpilband was not fired as a coach by the club manager and rink owner who could only stop him from using the rink. Coaches and skaters fire each other regularly but it's rare that the management steps in to rid a coach, especially one as successful as Shpilband. His skaters now have to decide and make their choices.

Putting aside pre existing opinions springing forwards once again, known facts and those supported by at least two sources are:

1. Shpiband is expelled from the Artic Edge Club by the management.

2. He is allegedly blindsided and shocked, as reported by both himself and the club manager who did the "firing". This is puzzling because

3. The contributing situation had existed and deteriorated such that USFSA had been apprised of the situation over a month ago, as informed by the club manager and presumably true since it involves the ultimate official government body of US figure skating. As well, Shpilband's wife coaching at the same club had seemed to be equally clueless.

4. The confirmed part of the "situation" involved discords between Shpilband and Zoueva, as expressed by both coaches and Charlie White's mother but not acknowledged by the management as the reason for the firing.

5. Shpilband is now looking for a rink in the same area to continue coaching his skaters of whom there are many according to him.

Unverified claims include

1. The top 3 teams at the club had been unhappy with Shpilband to the point of threatening to leave unless he did. This has been offered as the prime reason of firing Shpilband by the management. No skater has been heard from and Charlie's mother has denied this. Shpilband seems to disbelieve this and he is seeking to verify with one of the teams cited . Even Zuoeva has not stated this against Shpilband.

2. Zoueva is saddened by the firing, per her own statement. She has also acknowledged Shpilband's part in their coaching success.

3. Miscellaneous claims and theories involving politics, past and current rivalries and misconducts of coaches, skaters, federations, etc, past campaigns of ridding rivaling coaches, unfair judging and corrupt system...........

After reading some other posts and the updates in the original article, all I have to say is that I still can't believe the skaters were "against" Igor!

Article in Russian with quotes from Zueva: http://www.rsport.ru/figure_skating/20120604/599672867.html
She says: - "Igor created conflict of interest. Without my approval, he made a decision to accept his own students who he wanted to train separately from me. I have a very particular viewpoint in this situation - it is a conflict of interest".
- "He decided to start his own business within our common business. It is a conflict of interest. It is professionally incorrect to open your own business"

She also said the students are not involved in the conflict and that in her opinion he could have waited another year and a half until the Olympics (I guess to start teaching his own students).

I apologize for my bad translation, if anyone can correct it please do. Hopefully a full English version will be available soon.

Shocking news. Don't understand management's decision but Igor was under contract with the rink so I guess they can "fire" him. There are 4 rinks nearby. Ann Arbor is the closest but Yasa & Yuri are there and that could be a problem. Farmington Hills is the other closest rink to Canton, but has only 2 ice surfaces - same as Canton yet no major dance program. Onyx in Rochester has 3 ice surfaces - Richard Callaghan trained there for a time, no major dance program it seems. Also Troy has 4 ice surfaces but is the furthest from U of M, however they don't appear to have a significant dance program. I wish Igor and the all his skaters the best. It will be interesting as to which skaters stay in Canton or go with Igor.

http://www.rsport.ru/figure_skating/...599672867.html
Russian article with quotes from Marina talking about how she was angry with Igor for trying to start his own business.

Well, Zoueva has some valid points and she has been consistent in expressing them. I wonder why skaters were brought into this brouhaha?

There are two likely causes of this "firing", one being the clash with Zoueva who might have worked to get rid of him and the other being the management's decision based on reasons other than the clash or the top skaters' mutiny.

In the first scenario, did Zoueva have this much power over the management, or even USFSA? Was she deemed the indispensable one when an ultimatum was presented or when the management needed to keep the peace in the rink? If so, why did the management need to find a ridiculous excuse to cover it up as if it were a secret?

If it was the management's decision based on other factors that they loath to disclose, resorting to putting it squarely on the 6 famous skaters, then it could be a bigger scandal than we are privileged to know yet. But then Shpilband shouldn't be this shocked and planning to carry on in the same area with existing students.

I suspect the skaters are not as clueless as Shpilband appears to be.

If Mr. Shpilband was a true America (not the naturalized one), he would not be treated like this.

SkateFiguring said:

Well, Zoueva has some valid points and she has been consistent in expressing them. I wonder why skaters were brought into this brouhaha?

There are two likely causes of this "firing", one being the clash with Zoueva who might have worked to get rid of him and the other being the management's decision based on reasons other than the clash or the top skaters' mutiny.

In the first scenario, did Zoueva have this much power over the management, or even USFSA? Was she deemed the indispensable one when an ultimatum was presented or when the management needed to keep the peace in the rink? If so, why did the management need to find a ridiculous excuse to cover it up as if it were a secret?

If it was the management's decision based on other factors that they loath to disclose, resorting to putting it squarely on the 6 famous skaters, then it could be a bigger scandal than we are privileged to know yet. But then Shpilband shouldn't be this shocked and planning to carry on in the same area with existing students.

I suspect the skaters are not as clueless as Shpilband appears to be.

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As a speculation:
She might have made an argument that she is the one who is going to dedicate most of her time to the top three teams. Then convince the management that Shpilband will be unable to spend as much time as necessary with the top teams if he is going to accept additional students. Management tried to convince him to cancel or postpone his plans about starting his own school but he refused. Then he got fired.

bsfan said:

If Mr. Shpilband was a true America (not the naturalized one), he would not be treated like this.

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This is totally not true. If there was discord and the "facts" of the matter are that the top 3 teams in Canton wanted him gone (as reported by rink management in the article, so I will refer to them as the "facts" as we know them) or THEY would leave, you better believe the rink would get rid of Igor Shpilband! I know if my peers and I all went to our boss's boss and said we'd quit en masse or he had to be let go, he'd find a reason to let my boss go, and he's as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet (to quote an old advertising compaign). If DW/VM/SS all went to the rink manager and said Igor or us (as the article stated happened), I am sure a smart rink manager would say "nice working with you, Igor". It could be possible that Charlie White's mom was referencing something else in terms of the "tension" in her comments to someone else at the end of the article or that she doesn't know the entirety of the situation.

It's interesting that the issue comes up with exactly one full season before the Olympic year - B/A left the Shpilband/Zoueva camp right around the same time in the Olympic cycle and their concern was something along those lines - Igor was devoting much more of his time to D/W and V/M and they felt they could get more attention from Lininchuk (I think they said something to the effect of too many teams on the same ice, but then D/S showed up at Lininchuk's rink and neither team left).

eyria said:

Wow, I am shocked by this. The situation must have been really, really bad, otherwise I cannot fathom this breakup of the top ice dance coaching team in the world. It's so bizarre and out of the blue.

I almost can't even begin to speculate what happened. But, you do have to wonder if the Russian federation is involved in some way. I wouldn't put much past them in the quest for medals at Sochi. Breaking up the coaching team that's standing in their way is an underhanded way to try and beat the competition. But it could be effective.

You know, I wonder if this explains some of the oddities going on with the Canton teams last season. The seesawing scores of the Shibs . . . the controversy about their programs . . . Alex's uncharacteristic problems at Worlds . . . the trash-talking from Scott . . . the still, to me, inexplicable results at Worlds that put V/M on top over D/W and by such an unaccountably wide margin . . . then V/M's poor performance at World Team Trophy and trouncing by D/W. All in all, it was a strange season for the Canton group. Maybe behind-the-scenes problems contributed more to this than we realized.

I want to know more about this story and what went wrong. And, of course, what will happen now to the skaters.

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Even outside fan can detect this.The club managers and USFSA are so stupid that they let the russians to use their hands to distroy us/can chances for sochi.

It's too bad a partnership has to end this way. I suspect that the teams will take at least 1-2 weeks to decide their future and I would suspect that the USFSA and Skate Canada will also be consulted.

I'm over my indignation phase, now I'm ready to sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch how this all unfolds with what teams stick with who(m).

On the topic of conflict of interests:

What about all the choreography Zoueva provides for non-Canton skaters? Does she alone (without Shpilband) create and receive compensation for the outside choreography? In other words, is it not true that she has the freedom to use her time/energy/creativity/skills/experience for the benefit of skaters other than V/M, D/W, and S/S -- without including Shpilband in this part of her work?

Then why is it supposedly unacceptable for him to spend some of his time coaching certain skaters without including her??

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

The coaches each seem to be looking out for #1. It's a shame that by letting their rivalry escalate to this point, they are jeopardizing the training of their magnificent teams.

golden411 said:

On the topic of conflict of interests:

What about all the choreography Zoueva provides for non-Canton skaters? Does she alone (without Shpilband) create and receive compensation for the outside choreography? In other words, is it not true that she has the freedom to use her time/energy/creativity/skills/experience for the benefit of skaters other than V/M, D/W, and S/S -- without including Shpilband in this part of her work?

Then why is it supposedly unacceptable for him to spend some of his time coaching certain skaters without including her??

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

The coaches each seem to be looking out for #1. It's a shame that by letting their rivalry escalate to this point, they are jeopardizing the training of their magnificent teams.

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Good point! I never thought about that!

Zueva is now saying that it's because he was coaching skaters outside of the partnership and that was a conflict!

golden411 said:

On the topic of conflict of interests:

What about all the choreography Zoueva provides for non-Canton skaters? Does she alone (without Shpilband) create and receive compensation for the outside choreography? In other words, is it not true that she has the freedom to use her time/energy/creativity/skills/experience for the benefit of skaters other than V/M, D/W, and S/S -- without including Shpilband in this part of her work?

Then why is it supposedly unacceptable for him to spend some of his time coaching certain skaters without including her??

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

The coaches each seem to be looking out for #1. It's a shame that by letting their rivalry escalate to this point, they are jeopardizing the training of their magnificent teams.

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Not defending Zoueva here, but it seems her non-Canton choreography is all for pairs skating....still I see your point about Shpilband being able to allocate his time accordingly.
As a side note - you have to wonder how Carmenlengo is going to continue choreography for so many skaters....

heyhey said:

Not defending Zoueva here, but it seems her non-Canton choreography is all for pairs skating....still I see your point about Shpilband being able to allocate his time accordingly.
As a side note - you have to wonder how Carmenlengo is going to continue choreography for so many skaters....

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She also did choreography for Kozuka so she does some choreography for men as well.

In the US, if you are 'management' of some sort (and Igor would be), he can be fired for a whim. That's why executives insist on Golden Parachutes in their hiring contracts.

I know a guy who was fired when a competitor bought out the company for which he was VP of sales. The competitor insisted that our friend be fired as part of the terms of the purchase, because the friend had often beaten the competitor out on a number of contracts. He was fired for being an effective VP of sales.

That's the rawest one I know of personally.

Another guy was fired for being short, fat and bald. That wasn't too cool either.

samba said:

I kinda put the puzzles together. Marina wanted to get rid of Igor and have her boyfriend take his spot. USFS knew something going on in Canton, tried to push DSC skaters to make sure that USA has another camp to produce top skaters, not only Canton. I was surprised why USFS pushed H/D so hard to be on the top. Now, it makes sense. However, DSC is too crowded, I can't see D/W will go there.

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Sorry-just catching up on all the postings.
Do you really think that USFS was pushing the DSC skaters to fill in as Canton fell apart, and that H/D's successes this season came from that, and not hard work and a drive to succeed? If they were looking for back-up, why not look to Ann Arbor? K/G have shown promise-why didn't they push them thru the season?
What are the possibilities of Igor joining forces in Ann Arbor? Is it far from U of M. where the skaters go to school? Would it be a viable alternative?