‘Bullying, constitutional ignorance’: Explosive claims in report rock touch association

A local NSW touch football association has been rocked by allegations of bullying and unconstitutional conduct. Read the contents of the explosive report.

An investigation has resulted in the executive of the Manly Warringah Touch Association standing down. Picture: File

One of Australia’s largest touch football associations has been rocked by bombshell accusations of constitutional ignorance and bullying.

This masthead has obtained an explosive document setting an independent panel’s findings of shortcomings of the local branch.

The Manly Warringah Touch Association (MWTA) was found by the Panel to have brought the game into disrepute.

This stems from complaints made by members on January 7 this year, which were escalated to the NSW Touch Association (NSWTA) later that month.

It resulted in a panel of five, chaired by NSWTA independent director Lauren Moran, investigating the grievances brought forward.

The investigation by the Panel identified a number of governance issues it found was conducted by the MWTA, including:

- A broadbased ignorance of the MWTA constitution

- Allowing teams to be registered without upfront payments, a breach of MWTA’s by-laws

- Failure to adequately identify and manage financial risk

- Failure to adequately manage conflicts of interest

- Attempted abdication of responsibility based on title, system access, inclination or capacity

- Structuring of salaries for reasons other than to reflect the requirements of the role

- Failure to conduct an official vote of the executive on the appointment of a general manager

Further to this the report identifies other concerns raised, including:

- Manually disabling the registration payment option in MySideline (website used by participants to register/pay relevant fees)

- A failure to adequately chase outstanding monies from teams that were initially registered without payment. The report states that two members of the executive were found to be listed as delegates for a majority of the teams who failed to pay upfront

- Numerous accounts of potentially abusive/bullying behaviour relating to several members at the executive level. It found the conduct of the executive descended to a level that was ‘less than professional’

The panel accepted the MWTA board standing itself down, however it will remain in caretaker mode until a SGM can be conducted to elect a new executive.

It has also given strong advice for executive members from 2022-24 to not stand, given the likelihood of previous administrations ‘overseeing governance failures and unconstitutional practices’.

On its website, the MWTA describes itself as providing one of the largest touch competitions in Australia, with over 4000 active junior and senior participants on the books.

The junior competition is Australia’s biggest with over 380 registered teams.

The NSWTA said in a statement to this masthead:

“The NSW Touch Association takes all allegations or complaints of conduct detrimental to the game extremely seriously. It is for this reason that an independent grievance panel was established—to ensure transparency, fairness, and integrity in the handling of such matters.

“We are confident that the independent panel has conducted a thorough and balanced process, the findings of which are detailed in the publicly released report. The NSW Touch Association remains committed to working collaboratively with both the current and future MWTA Executive to support and uphold the best interests of its members.”

This masthead has reached out to MTWA for comment.