Leaked documents reveal the full extent of the bloated bureaucracy inside the AFL
In 2003 the AFL employed around 100 staff members. That number then exploded to the point where staff numbers rivalled player numbers. For the first time, see the leaked documents that reveal the inner workings of the AFL empire.
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AFL staff numbers exploded to a staggering 795 before last month’s cuts were announced, leaked internal documents reveal.
The Herald Sun can for the first time reveal the full scale of the AFL empire, which employs almost as many workers as the 18-team national competition has players.
A not-for-profit organisation that pays no tax, the AFL employed about 100 staff before the appointment of chief executive Andrew Demetriou in 2003.
A dossier detailing the body’s hierarchy has emerged as league chiefs begin slashing jobs because of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
The AFL has repeatedly refused to disclose how many staff it employs at its sprawling, two-storey Docklands headquarters and interstate outposts.
Not even club presidents are privy to the information.
But the documents obtained by the Herald Sun reveal there are 367 staff working in departments overseen by AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon, 116 under AFL Media boss Darren Birch, 100 for commercial boss Kylie Rogers and 93 in football operations run by Steven Hocking.
Birch will depart late next month under a plan to reduce the league workforce by about 20 per cent.
The leaked organisation charts reveal there are eight in-house lawyers, 42 staff in the AFL finance division, 26 in strategy and 10 in the integrity unit, including six ex-Victoria Police officers.
Another 104 are employed at AFL NSW, 88 at AFL Queensland, 40 at AFLNT and 29 at AFL Tasmania – the majority of which work with local and grassroots competitions in those states.
More than 400 work at AFL House in Melbourne.
The wages bill for the AFL bureaucracy topped $115.6 million last year – $10.56 million alone on chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s 11-person executive team.
Almost 80 per cent of the workforce was stood down in March and placed on the Federal Government-funded JobKeeper payments program.
The league says a skeleton AFL staffing team that continued to work after the COVID-19 crisis started had taken a minimum pay cut of 20 per cent.
The game’s 850 players have been hit with 50 per cent pay cuts, while the 18 clubs have been ordered to cut staff and save millions of dollars in costs.
An AFL spokesman said McLachlan had taken the same 50 per cent pay cut as the players this season, but the size of his salary remains a closely guarded secret because of an edict pushed through by AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder.
His wage was last publicly disclosed at $1.74 million three years ago.
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The AFL executive team – set to be marginally reduced – earned an average salary of $880,000 last year.
AFL staff are due to be notified about their futures next Tuesday and many roles made redundant from October 16.
The AFL stopped publishing its official staffing numbers in its annual report, filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, several years ago.
It now boasts about a dozen in house departments, including the office of the chief executive, football operations, game development, legal and integrity, commercial operations, corporate affairs, finance and broadcasting, infrastructure, major projects and investment, inclusion and social policy, diversity, AFL Media, strategy and human resources.
