Chris Bryan of Collingwood evades Bachar Houli of Essendon during the NAB Cup Match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Essendon Bombers at the Docklands Stadium. Slattery Images
The AFL needs to quickly take greater control of third party payments otherwise the league is in danger of becoming a clone of world soccer. The result is a two tier system that will have clear divisions between the rich and poor, allowing powerhouse clubs to dominate while the weaker clubs simply make up the numbers.
This will effectively turn the AFL into a “cheque-book” sport, to the detriment of the game.
All week we’ve heard the AFL and the players association ramble on about the integrity of a competitive and balanced competition, but the league’s reluctant disclosure of third party payments has exposed a complete violation of the values that the salary cap is supposed to protect.
The recent free trade agreement propelled the issue into the spotlight and invariably forced the AFL to reveal 114 players are currently receiving payments outside the salary cap.
We knew the payments existed but to this extent came as a huge surprise to many, Carlton skipper Chris Judd is the best example, his million-dollar deal is underpinned by a financial arrangement with club sponsor Visy.
Gary Ablett’s contract at Geelong will be directly affected because the Cats don’t have room in their salary cap to match any lucrative offer from the Gold Coast, but are openly chasing third party deals to make up the difference.
Obviously the players association is in full support of any third party payments as they provide greater opportunity for its members to earn money.
However, when AFLPA boss Matt Finnis said this week the payments are legitimate “particularly if that extra money is paid to promote AFL football.” Was he kidding himself? The promotion of the game is a tiny by-product compared to the marketing value for a company or the extra financial allure it helps provide to a player.
The growing concern has stretched far and wide too, Bulldogs chief executive Campbell Rose labelled it “mischievous” the great Ron Barassi said it was “absolutely pathetic” while Melbourne President Jim Stynes called for “total disclosure” to avoid total upheaval.
The draft and salary cap were introduced into the AFL for the very purpose of protecting the competition against what third party payments are now allowing to happen. Cashed up clubs will be able to manipulate the competition to the point where total player payments will simply become irrelevant.
Ambassadorial roles with club sponsors will be more a fait accompli than alternative, further exposing this flaw in the system.
However AFL boss Andrew Demetriou says he’s satisfied with the current level of regulation with any bona fide commercial deal ticked off by investigations manager Ken Wood.
But has the AFL been caught on the back foot on this? Are they naïve to think one man can effectively police such a serious issue that is threatening the fabric of the game?
Will we ever get full transparency?
I’m just not convinced the AFL even realise how big a problem this might already be.
Either way for some reason, the thought of third party payments is giving me a nostalgic feeling the AFL is no longer the healthy home grown competition it used to be. How can Manchester United fans be so happy to win a title when they buy premierships?
For me, this adds an element of illegitimacy to any team sport that achieves the ultimate success.
The AFL is better than that and need to quickly act to preserve the integrity of the competition.
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