Football clubs support plans to crack down on escalating player payments

CLUB officials are backing plans to crack down on escalating player payments in community football but remain sceptical about how the proposed new measures will be policed.

CLUB officials are backing plans to crack down on escalating player payments in community football but remain sceptical about how the proposed new measures will be policed.

SA Community Football Board chairman David Shipway last week told The Advertiser club administrators would likely have to sign statutory declarations making under-the-table payments illegal as part of a statewide cap on player wages from 2016.

It comes as the board, which oversees the state’s community and country competitions, develops a limit on how much teams can pay a player following a raft of complaints from leagues that excessive match payments are killing clubs.

Central District coach Roy Laird was scathing of footballers chasing large sums in community footy and the clubs paying them.

“It’s a disgrace,” Laird said.

“It’s got out of hand so at least they’re taking some measures but we’ll see whether or not they can buck the trend.”

Laird estimated up to five players left the Bulldogs for high-paying community clubs each season.

“We have guys who have only played a few reserves game get $500 or $600 a game in country footy. It’s a joke,” he said.

Club officials would face up to four years jail for signing false statutory declarations.

Salisbury North coach Craig Dawe, whose team lost more than a dozen A-graders to high-paying country clubs last year, said the amount clubs were spending was a concern but did not believe the proposed punishments would work.

“It doesn’t stop a sponsor from giving players brown paper bags in the car park during the week,” Dawe said.

“They need to crack down on this ... and I don’t have a magic solution for it either, but I don’t know how they’re going to police it.”

Ironbank football director Glen Turner said if sponsors or benefactors were paying players outside the cap “you can sign all the stat decs you like”.

“I can’t imagine the courts wanting to clog up the system with guys who have lied on football club stat decs,” Turner said.

Turner expected “mercenaries” to join interstate leagues if the measures worked and player payments dropped significantly.

He said his club’s highest paid player received under $1000 per game.

Reynella coach Gianni Petrucci and South Gawler senior football director Daniel Kiryk agreed an individual salary cap would be difficult to police.

“If you’ve got two parties signing a bit of paper saying it’s black but then behind closed doors they might say it’s white,” Kiryk said.

“The money is out of control and I believe something needs to be done.

“Whether this is the right way about it, I’m not sure.”

Kiryk said some clubs were spending $50,000 on players each season and finishing near the bottom “just so guys turn up every week”.

“No one plays for nothing any more.”

Petrucci, who coached the Wineflies to a flag last year, said community clubs needed to develop their juniors, rather than buy high-priced players, to achieve sustained success.

“If it was a $500 cap, we wouldn’t have an issue with that – no one gets paid more than that at our footy club.”

An unprecedented number of suburban Adelaide clubs found themselves in dire trouble last season after high-paying country clubs poached 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.

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.