Border Mail | AFL Victoria will hire salary cap police to scour contracts in a crackdown on excessive payments under a blueprint released yesterday to even up the state’s football competitions.
And there will be club fines and player suspensions for those breaking salary cap limits.
AFL Victoria also plans to develop a statewide contract for all clubs signing players.
The moves are at the heart of AFL Victoria’s community club sustainability program soon to be trialled, ahead of implementation next season,
The new contracts will have consistent terms and conditions, including non-payment of sign-on fees, no payments for finals matches or when a player is injured and exemptions for playing coaches.
The salary cap rules have been drafted in consultation with the AFL’s integrity unit.
Salary cap limits for local competitions will be set by the AFL North East Border Commission.
Its regional manager, John O’Donohue, has been on the player payments working committee which has been devising a solution to the issue for two years.
In a recent survey, 83 per cent of clubs in metro and country leagues agreed a system was needed to regulate escalating player payments.
The Ovens and Murray league is widely regarded as one of the biggest spending competitions in the state with an estimated $2.5 million-plus spent each year on match payments, as well as sign-on fees of up to $5000.
There will be random audits, immunity for whistle blowers and leniency shown to clubs or individuals who self report.
All contracts will be lodged electronically to a secure portal where they can be accessed and audited by an integrity officer.
Players will be required to sign statutory declarations confirming all payments to them are accurate.
Third-party or under the table payments will be illegal.
Salary cap and player points systems will be introduced in all North East leagues.
Discussions are under way with neighbouring Hume league to adopt the same equalisation measures from next season.
The player points limit for each club will be guided by the trial and a final decision on a team points will again be determined by the regional commission in consultation with leagues.
Variances will be considered on a club’s points limit due to population sizes and ladder positions over a sustained period.
Points will be added if a player switches to another club in the same competition and deducted for each season of service.
The player points categories range from a maximum of six points for an AFL player with a minimum one match in the previous three seasons to one point for a home- grown player.
A player’s points allocation will be displayed on the existing Footyweb software.
The player points system and salary cap regulations were presented to league executives this week and club briefings will be held in Wangaratta on May 25 and Albury on May 27.
