Omnia   

AFLcountryWeekly Times | AN AFL Victoria salary cap will be introduced under a “phased in approach” alongside a points system, it was unveiled today.

AFL Victoria has released the draft proposal of its Community Club Sustainability Program — a statewide response to concerns about the movement of players, the amount of money players are paid, and the burden that placed on club volunteers.

A player points model, to encourage retention of players and junior development, and a salary cap, will be implemented statewide under the program.

AFL Victoria community football and engagement manager Brett Connell, chairman of the CCSP working party, said a model was floated to roll out a points system and salary cap together about six months into the project.

Further research found the combined approach would be “unmanageable”.

“The points system, we believe, is the first opportunity for us to get it involved at a club level to minimise ... player transfers which hopefully then will reduce the escalating player payments,” he said.

“Some country commissions have indicated that they’ll look to employ a salary cap in 2016. If they choose to do so they’ll need to obviously have all the educational tools ready to roll, but it would be a phased (in) approach.

“If club ‘X’ is paying $400,000 right now and we want to reduce that salary cap to $250,000 in 2016, there’s no way known they can compete if they had to do it in 12 months, so a phased in approach is going to be really important.

“Once the salary cap’s in, that will be immediate, that will reduce player payments, but that may take ... two or three years for us to achieve.”

The points model will allocate a value to every player, and teams will have a limit on the accumulative points value of their fielded side.

The points system will be implemented in the following ways:

— Players will be divided into six categories, with the lowest value of one point allocated to a “home player” and the highest value of six points to former AFL players.

— Additional points may be incurred for players transferring to a club within the same league, transferring from a designated premier competition club to a non-premier competition, and to those who have transferred to more than two clubs in 36 months.

— Players will lose one point of value for each season they stay at the club, assuming they play at least five games. They revert to a one point value if they are returning to their home club or have not played for the previous three years.

— The point allocations for each league and team will be at the region commissions’ discretion to take into account local conditions. They may consider factors like region populations, teams’ finals performances, and available junior pathways.

— A salary cap would apply to all player payments allocated to senior players throughout the season.

— Player payments will be required to be detailed in standard statewide player contracts, which will be required to be accompanied by a statutory declaration signed by the player in question.

— AFL Victoria accredited integrity officers may be engaged by leagues and commissions to undertake a salary cap audit of clubs.

Connell said the panel believed “without a doubt” a salary cap could be policed.

Potential penalties for breaches include club fines, relegation for divisional competitions, loss of points, suspension from finals and player suspension.

Connell said salary cap figures were “well advanced” and would be determined through a testing period.

He said the panel was conscious of how these systems would impact clubs that had players on existing contracts carrying over into next year.

“We wouldn’t want to provide too much leeway because if we provide that leniency now, what will happen is everyone will be bunged on a two-year contract and all those points won’t take effect until the next year or the year after,” he said.

“We’ve got to be careful how we manage that one.”

Region commissions will meet with their clubs and leagues this month before a designated testing period wraps up on July 31.

The final report and policy documents will be released on August 30 for implementation next year.

Read Full Article