Essendon drugs scandal has the potential to cost every club in the AFL

THE Essendon drugs scandal could hit every club in the AFL when it comes to sponsorship dollars.

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REMEMBER when Renault stalled on its major sponsorship deal with Port Adelaide in February, sweating on the Australian Crime Commission report on Australian sport?

The French car maker only signed once it was convinced the Power was clean and the sponsorship contract was rewritten with escape clauses if this changed.

It is worth reflecting on this as the AFL Commission prepares to hit the Essendon Football Club for the drug scandal at Windy Hill. This is no longer a Bombers-only issue.

It has tainted all of the AFL - as every club is learning while multi-national firms walk away from sponsorship talks questioning the value of being associated with a sport where every day drugs are in the headlines.

This is why - even before the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority report on the Bombers was filed with the AFL on Friday - the AFL had grounds to charge and punish Essendon for bringing the game into disrepute.

By Essendon's own admissions from its internal report, written by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski, there were serious governance problems at Windy Hill where the duty of care to the players was seriously compromised.

Imagine the stain this leaves on AFL football in company board rooms where every dollar assigned to a sporting or cultural sponsorship has to be justified to shareholders. In international headquarters, such as the Red Bull centre in Europe, the directors who once would marvel at the feats of AFL players risking life and limb without protective gear would raise their eyebrows in a different direction.

That line, "What are these guys on?" takes on a new meaning.

Just as the ACC report tarnished everyone in Australian sport to almost deny Port Adelaide millions of dollars, the Essendon saga has stretched well beyond Windy Hill.

As one former AFL club president - recently returned from overseas - told 360 this week: "This is going to cost all AFL clubs a lot of money."

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou returns to AFL House on Wednesday - after leading a fact-finding mission on money equalisation in professional U.S. sport - under fire for leaving headquarters as ASADA delivered its interim report on the Bombers.

His critics might take note that while Demetriou was in New York he saw first-hand how Major League Baseball dealt with the nine star players who have been found guilty of drug use. He gained invaluable guidance.

Whether he has learned enough to keep the corporate world from abandoning the AFL is now the challenge of his reign.

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