SA Police attend Gaza Football Club after heated altercation during meeting

The Gaza Football Club salary cap scandal has taken another turn with police called to the club on Thursday night.

The Gaza Football Club salary cap scandal has taken yet another twist with police called to the club overnight.

SA Police attended the club at 7pm on Thursday after a meeting between three club members, including president Don Rosella, became heated.

The members were asked to leave the premises by police, which they did.

No arrests were made.

“The team was out on the oval training and we didn’t really see what happened, all we saw was police arrive during the session and enter the club,” a club member said.

Police were called to Gaza Football Club overnight after a meeting became heated. Picture: Facebook

The altercation comes just a day after the club was found guilty by an independent SANFL tribunal on 223 counts of salary cap breaches involving player payments, total player match payment and sign-on breaches, as well as false contracts through the 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 Adelaide Footy League seasons.

President Rosella was also found guilty by Justice Michael David KC for involvement in breaches during 2021 and 2022.

At the hearing, Rosella and lawyer Greg Griffin claimed he caught wind of breaches before becoming president in 2020 and tried to stop them by removing the people involved.

“As a consequence of his (Rosella’s) hard line position, he was completely kept out of the loop by the football department and had nothing to do with the payments,” Mr Griffin said.

“Weak coaches and weak club officials sat back and let it happen.”

President of GAZA Football club Don Rosella arrives for the appeal hearing. Picture: Mark Brake

The two-day long tribunal at Adelaide Oval heard six Gaza players, some of whom were paid up to $600 more than the weekly limit, made statements to SANFL investigators detailing payments by the club on top of what their contracts stated, which were used as evidence against the club by SANFL lawyers Andrew Culshaw and Garry Palasis.

Text messages containing discussions around payment amounts between club players and officials, which were provided to SANFL investigators by a Gaza player, were also used as evidence by SANFL lawyers during the tribunal hearing.

Lawyers Andrew Culshaw and Garry Palasis represented the SANFL during the two-day tribunal hearing. Picture: Mark Brake

SANFL investigators were able to use the player statements to correct the false contracts and weekly payment spreadsheets provided by Gaza to the SANFL and AdFL, therefore concluding how much the club had breached individual player payments and weekly total player payments by in each season.

The club was found to have deliberately breached weekly individual player payment limits of $500 as well as total player payment limits of $2500 in each of the four years, exceeding as much as double the allowed amount in every week of the 2022 season.

Mr Rosella faces a potential suspension of 10 years from holding an official role with any SANFL-affiliated club.

The club was originally fined $380,000 and could be docked player and premiership points ahead of next season.

However, Justice Michael David will make submissions on penalties which will be considered by a SANFL committee when the tribunal reconvenes on Tuesday, February 20, meaning lesser penalties may apply.