Footy officials may face jail time for breaching salary cap as part of crackdown on secret player payments

LOCAL football club bosses could face jail time for breaching salary cap rules under a tough plan to crack down on dodgy player payments.

12/04/14 Southern football league team the Aldinga Sharks play Morphett Vale at Morphett Vale after multiple 100 plus losses resulting in the sacking of their coach. pic Calum Robertson

LOCAL football administrators would face jail sentences for breaching salary cap rules under a tough new scheme proposed to crack down on escalating player payments.

Football club officials will likely have to sign statutory declarations making under-the-table payments illegal as part of a statewide cap on player wages from 2016.

The SA Community Football Board, which oversees the state’s community and country competitions, is developing a limit on how much teams can pay a player following a raft of complaints from leagues that excessive match payments are killing clubs.

Board chairman David Shipway said compelling club officials to sign statutory declarations and docking premiership points if players were paid more than a set amount would make teams accountable for what they spent.

False statutory declarations are considered a criminal offence and can lead to a maximum four years jail.

“The penalties for signing an incorrect stat dec are quite severe,” Shipway said.

“There are also tax implications if committee members are aware of and participating in paying players under the lap or the old brown paper bags.

“(Previously) we had no binding document — it has to have some teeth.

“We haven’t put any of this in place right yet, it’s got to go through the proper processes.”

In May, amateur football league chief executive John Kernahan and River Murray Football League president Mick O’Hara told The Advertiser they would not be surprised if squad wages across the state’s 277 clubs totalled $20 million, as some spent up to $200,000 on players per season.

Shipway described excessive player payments as the “biggest issue in community footy at present”.

“Some clubs are very responsible about how they spend their money ... but some are just caught on a gravy train that are hellbent on either winning a premiership or keeping their club afloat,” he said.

SA competitions have previously used salary caps to curb payments across a whole team but Shipway said they were “unpoliceable and unworkable”.

An unprecedented number of suburban Adelaide clubs found themselves in dire trouble last season, with high-paying country clubs poaching players.

Kilburn, Flinders University, Angle Vale, Mitchell Park, Aldinga, Brahma Lodge and Wingfield have all faced struggles to field teams this year and been on the end of huge losses.

Salisbury West was runner-up in the amateur league’s division four this year but might struggle to field A or B grade sides next season after losing many players to high-paying clubs.

The proposed limit on individual match payments comes three years after an Approved Player Points System was introduced across SA leagues to replace the salary cap and limit the number of recruits clubs could lure.

Shipway said some leagues were also considering reintroducing a self-policed competition cap, which would restrict how much a team could spend on its entire squad.

“Our number one goal is the viability and the sustainability of clubs,” Shipway said.

“We certainly don’t want clubs going broke by just having to raise money to pay players they can’t afford.”

Shipway was unsure what the cap on individual player payments would be but expected it to be finalised early next year.

He said the board was introducing the measures on behalf of clubs and leagues, whose concerns about player payments had grown over the past 18 months.

“It’s really a co-operative to stop clubs from sending themselves to the wall,” Shipway said.

“We have had clubs come to us and say ‘we’re on this merry-go-round, we want to get off, can you help?’

“If the going price goes down, I don’t think we’re going to lose players.

“Players just might be more careful about where they want to play or they’ll stay with their mates rather than chase a dollar.”

Shipway said the board would provide officials with financial expertise to help clubs oversee their finances.

“That’s only if it’s going through the books.”

Kernahan said the amateur league supported the player pay limit and was also considering a cap on club spending.