Carlton FC president’s exit only adds to questions despite his ‘line in the sand’ moment

Luke Sayers’ departure from his beloved football club and the consulting business he founded, due to the lewd image scandal, leaves questions unanswered beyond those entities.

Luke Sayers has stepped down as president of AFL football club Carlton. Picture: Getty Images

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, perhaps few heavier than the one borne by both the boss of a football club and a consulting firm, with a red hot scandal at his back and a raging inferno of uncertainty in front of him.

Few would have expected Luke Sayers, a man who survived a few scandals in his time at PwC Australia and weathered the disaster that has come after, to be brought low by a picture of a penis posted for all the world to see – for 13 or so minutes.

The man who knew nothing, saw nothing, said nothing, about any kind of scandal at PwC that concerned the deliberate misuse of confidential government tax plans, is finally forced to step back from the consulting sector. Sayers will step down from Carlton and step back from Sayers Group, but we’re still no closer to understanding the circumstances around the firing off of a penis picture two weeks ago.

All that the AFL, Carlton, and the man himself could muster was a proclamation that his X account had been “compromised” and that the picture of someone’s family jewels had been spread by an unnamed actor, not Sayers. Despite this and the fact that Sayers remains in Italy the AFL has seen fit to clear the consultant-cum-football tycoon.

How exactly has the AFL come to this conclusion?

Carlton also relied on the advice of Christopher Townshend, KC, a former contemporary on the club’s board alongside Sayers “to ensure the club gathered an informed and impartial understanding of the matter”.

Sayers was content to call it a victory – perhaps a little pyrrhic – and tell everyone the decision “draws a line in the sand”.

But to even get here the consulting community and Carlton fans were treated to weeks of painful dissembling and managing the message.

Sayers’ denials are also not alone among the consulting titan’s strident statements.

The businessman, who was determined enough to set up his own eponymous firm, is failed by his memory when asked to recollect anything about PwC’s prolonged misuse of confidential government tax information.

Instead Sayers doubles down, telling parliament in an eight point letter, crafted within an inch of its life, he did not know, could not know, and had no knowledge. Indeed, Sayers fails to remember telling his own general counsel all about the problem.

The three blind monkeys approach has many applications. Despite all this it seems Sayers is now the latest casualty among those connected to PwC’s tax scandal, and certainly the most high profile since his former tax deputy Tom Seymour fell on his own sword.

With a police investigation still running and the Tax Practitioners Board chugging away, it makes one wonder who or what is next.

Originally published as Carlton FC president’s exit only adds to questions despite his ‘line in the sand’ moment