Add Category
The murky world of player payments in suburban football has again raised its head with an Adelaide club fined more than $180,0000 and docked six premiership points for hundreds of salary cap breaches.
South Australia's governing body the SANFL had charged the Gaza Football Club with going over the salary cap and making undisclosed payments to several players during the 2018 to 2022 seasons in the Adelaide Football League after getting a tip-off.
Earlier this month the independent Salary Cap Commissioner Justice Michael David KC found the charges proven and the club guilty of 223 breaches of the regulations.
Gaza had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Tuesday night, Justice David handed down his recommended penalties for the club to the SA Football Commission, which includes a total fine of $186,000 for the breaches.
He also recommended the club lose six premiership points for the 2024 season, as well as six points from the Approved Player Points System used to recruit players.
Former club president Don Rosella had also been found guilty of charges relating to breaches in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
He has been suspended from holding any official role with an affiliated league or club for five years.
The SA Football Commission will consider the commissioner's recommendations next week, where it will either ratify the penalties or make amendments where it sees fit.
Two other club officials had already accepted sanctions that were offered to them.
"It's going to cost the club quite a bit and it's going to take them many years to recover from these sorts of poor decisions that were made," SANFL chief executive Matt Duldig said after the initial hearing.
"The evidence was overwhelming, these were systematic, blatant cheating of the regulations, it was overwhelming evidence."
He said while there have been cases of rule-breaking in the past, none were to the extent of the Gaza charges.
Mr Duldig said the individual match payments and the weekly salary cap being breached were significant issues and needed to be stamped out.
However, the fate of the Gaza Football Club was still a concern.
"We'll continue to work through them because there's lots of kids around that area and there are people who love that footy club who haven't done the wrong thing," he said.
"We don't want to shut the doors on footy clubs, but in the same breath the penalties need to fit the crime."
It is by no means the first time that a football club has been caught.
The South Australian club Jervois FC was fined $26,500, and lost premiership points and player points over two seasons for breaking payment rules in 2022 in the River Murray Football League.
The Wangaratta Magpies Football Club was also stripped of its 2022 premiership for salary cap breaches.