PLAYERS who are caught cheating AFL Victoria’s salary cap to be implemented from 2017 will be suspended for at least a year.
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AFL Victoria has released its draft Player Salary Cap (PSC) policy to be introduced next year as the next stage of its Community Club Sustainability Program.
The program also includes the player points system, which was this year rolled out state-wide.
The 14-page draft policy unveiled on Friday details a harsh penalty for any player who signs a Standard Playing Contract that does not contain all the benefits they or an associate are receiving to participate for their club.
“That player will be suspended for a period of not less than one year as a player or official as determined by the Metropolitan League or Region Commission,” the draft policy reads.
The draft policy also has immunity provisions for any player who may blow the whistle on their club if there is a breach of the salary cap.
“Any player, either currently or previously registered with a club, is entitled to come forward to report any breach or possible breach of the PSC policy and they may receive immunity in regard to that report,” the draft policy says.
“As such, if the report is found to have constituted a breach or possible breach of the PSC policy, the player may not receive any other penalty in regard to that report.”
And any official or someone associated with a club past or present who is not a player and comes forward to report a potential salary cap breach may receive leniency as far as any penalty that is imposed.
While it’s a state-wide implementation, the salary caps will be set by Region Commissions and Metropolitan Leagues, just as the player point allocations were for teams.
AFL Central Victoria announced in August last year salary caps ranging from $120,000 to $160,000 for its four senior leagues in 2017.
Bendigo’s salary cap has been set at $160,000, Heathcote District and North Central will be between $135,000 and $140,000 – there’s still some tweaking to be done around a potential travel allowance – while Loddon Valley will be $120,000.
Each league’s salary caps for 2017 were determined following feedback from clubs on their player payments in 2014 and 2015.
Each club will have to lodge with the AFLCV Commission by April 30 a statement signed by the president and either the secretary, treasurer or football manager setting out the names of players, details of all budgeted payments and benefits, including club awards expected to be paid to players for the coming season, which will then be compared to actual payments by another lodgement by October 31.
All player incentives/match awards paid in cash must be included in the salary cap, as do non-cash awards over $100 for any one player.
AFL Victoria accredited integrity officers will be trained and called upon “from time to time” by Regional Commissions or Metropolitan Leagues with the authority to undertake salary cap investigations of clubs.
The draft policy lists three levels of breaches in which clubs can be punished – breaches of less than $5000 over the salary cap, between $5000 and $25,000, and over $25,000.
In all levels clubs will be fined the equal amount to which they have exceeded their salary cap, while additional penalties could also include the removal of player points, loss of premiership points, becoming ineligible for finals and relegation if playing under a divisional format.
The most severe breach of the salary cap for over $25,000 lists potential penalties applicable to the AFLCV region on top of a club fine as:
• the removal of up to 16 player points over the following three seasons;
• the loss of up to 20 premiership points for the senior team for each of the following three seasons; and
• ineligible for the finals series of the senior and reserves competition for the current and or following three seasons.
Penalties imposed will be at the discretion of the Commission.
Under the new policy, sign-on fees are banned, while a non-playing coach’s salary won’t be included.
A playing coach will have 50 per cent of their salary up to $20,000 included in the cap.
For example, a playing coach on a salary of $30,000 would have $15,000 included in the cap; whereas a playing coach on $50,000 would have $30,000 included.
AFL Victoria states the aim of the PSC policy is to set out a framework of rules and guiding principles in which to narrow the gap between high and low spending clubs to assist with the rise of escalating player payments in community football.
“The purpose of the PSC policy is to assist club volunteers in managing both the type of payment made to players and place the ceiling on the total player payments that a club may distribute,” AFL Victoria Club Sustainability manager Darryl Collings said on Friday.
“The PSC policy is all about sustaining community football and supporting the thousands of volunteers across the state who are the backbone of local football.”
The release of the draft policy comes ahead of AFLCV holding a pair of club forums – next Wednesday night at La Trobe University and in Boort on Monday, August 7 – to discuss the new salary cap, as well as the continued development of the player points system.
AFLCV regional manager Paul Hamilton is confident all clubs in the region will play by the rules under the salary cap policy.
“I’m comfortable as a starting point that all clubs want it to work,” Hamilton said.
“When a salary cap was brought into local footy 20 years ago clubs didn’t want it, it was unrealistically low and just didn’t work… pretty simply clubs cheated it.
“This time around the salary caps that have been brought in are realistic and not massively inhibiting on clubs.
“We seem to be getting a positive response from clubs to this, and there’s some fairly big deterrents to not abiding by the policy.
“That’s not what we want to get to. We want to make sure we get it right here because everything we’re doing with this is about ensuring clubs are sustainable into the future so they can afford to keep running and put less stress on their volunteers.
“But like anything new that comes in, there will be the education period and some work that will need to go into ensuring the clubs are across all the details of the policy.”
Regional Commissions and Metropolitan Leagues will assess the policy and provide feedback to AFL Victoria’s Community Club Sustainability Program working party by August 12.
All feedback will be assessed by the Community Club Sustainability Program working party, with a final version to be ratified prior to release of the final policy later this year.