Rob Woodhouse announced his farewell to London Roar today with thanks and encouragement for the International Swimming League alongside words of wisdom, caution and concern for the ISL over its "direction of travel … with athletes, teams and others not really having a say in that direction, vision or strategy for where the League is going and how to make it work commercially."

Woodhouse, an Olympic medallist for Australia in the 400m medley at the 1984 Olympic Games, makes clear that his last wish would be to throw the League and the "great positives it's brought to swimming" under the bus as he departs. 

He means quite the opposite in terms of encouraging swimming's great fortune in having an investor pour millions into the sport and take on the international federation with a challenge that has forced a reform process long overdue, among other "obvious positives".

However, troubled by concerns over the direction the League was taking without enough consolation with stakeholders, he submitted his resignation to the ISL late last year. In an interview with SOS today as he made his decision public, he explained: 

"The League does need to work with people who share the vision and believe this is going to work and I certainly did share that and was very passionate about it. I'm still really hope that the thing works but I guess I've lost a bit of faith in terms of where it's going. So, the right thing to do is to have someone else come in who has that faith and belief and is happy to work with the ISL under their guidelines." - Rob Woodhouse

While he did not want his views on the league to come across as focussing only on the "things that are wrong with it", he told SOS: "But there are things wrong with it."