Jeff Kennett accuses AFL of double standards over Ali Fahour furore

FORMER Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has slammed the AFL’s handling of the Ali Fahour coward punch saga, accusing the league of double standards.

Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has slammed AFL CEO Gillon McLachalan’s handling of the Ali Fahour saga accusing the league of double standards. Picture: Julian Smith.

FORMER Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has slammed AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s handling of the Ali Fahour saga accusing the league of double standards.

Mr Kennett said the AFL’s failure to sack its diversity manager after he threw a ‘coward punch’ at an unsuspecting opponent on the weekend set a dangerous precedent.

“The trouble with the AFL is when dealing with its own it sets different and lower standards than when it deals with anyone else who has crossed the line,” Mr Kennett told the Herald Sun.

“This is not a situation that requires a great deal of decision making … the AFL can’t condone their own people conducting themselves in that way.”

Mr Kennett, the former Hawthorn president, believes the AFL has no option but to sack Fahour warning that the scandal was unlikely “to go away”.

“There will always be accidents in a contact sport but that is entirely different to a brain fade or a deliberate attack to the head,” he said.

“A hit which may cause brain damage immediately or may cause damage that will become apparent in later years or it may cause death, I am disappointed that the AFL hasn’t moved quickly on this.

“With my knowledge as the former chairman of beyondblue I know that one strike can often lead to irreparable damage or death.

Jeff Kennett. Picture: Getty

Ali Fahour. Pic: Michael Klein

The Fahour incident was captured on camera.

“The AFL do not have a good record of upholding within its own organ what they demand of others.

“The AFL have a record of having two standards and I hope on this occasion as much as I regret the impact it will have on the individual they will understand they have no option.

“With the change of leadership from Andrew (Demetriou) to Gil (McLachlan) we hoped that there would be a change in the culture, the standards demanded, the lack of protection for own over and above those they adjudicate and sit over … there have been some very good changes but he (Fahour) breached their own rules.

“The AFL is the best run sport in the country but particularly under Andrew (Demetriou) they were a bullying, intimidatory organisation and they protected their own against the interests of the game and there are many examples of where that happened, double standards and let’s hope this is not another one.”

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