Three-year ban for man who guided careers of Robbie Grabarz, Isobel Pooley and Morgan Lake after verbally abusing athletes
High jump coach Fuzz Caan has been given a three-year ban following a string of complaints that included verbally abusing his athletes, calling a British Athletics team doctor a “f***wit” and mocking para athletes.
The 56-year-old has coached many of Britain’s best high jumpers such as London 2012 silver medallist Robbie Grabarz and former and current UK record-holders Isobel Pooley and Morgan Lake, plus Tom Parsons, Emily Borthwick and Brendan Reilly.
He also had a hand in Germaine Mason’s Olympic silver medal performance in 2008 and has recently helped some of Britain’s rising stars like Sam Brereton.
Caan’s finest moment as a coach was guiding Grabarz to an Olympic podium at a home Games and he once said: “I took him from a guy who a lot of people considered to be not very good and a bit of a party athlete to an Olympic medal, winner of the Diamond League, European champion and equalling the British record.”
Fuzz Caan with Robbie Grabarz (Mark Shearman)
Caan was a 2.21m jumper himself in the 1980s under the name of Fayyaz Ahmed. He has used several names during his life incidentally due to part-time work as an actor which has seen him appear in Coronation Street and Holby City among other television programmes.
Caan, who is married to former high jump international Julie Crane, was the subject of a dozen disciplinary charges and he partly admitted to eight of them, including “making fun of disabled people”.
Caan admitted he “inappropriately swore and used industrial language” with athletes and “failed to act with dignity and to display courtesy and good manners” toward them on several occasions.
There was no actual hearing but the disciplinary panel felt his admission to so many charges rendered this unnecessary.
Caan was suspended just before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and his suspension is backdated to that point, which means he will be able to return to coaching in time for the Paris Olympics next year. According to newspaper reports, he is now working as a coaching consultant in the Middle East.
The full report of the decision can be seen here.
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