TOPIC:

First stop on the Investigation Express......
I wonder how many more will of he letters will be sent out?


CLUB PRESIDENTS

INVESTIGATION TRIBUNAL - BREACH OF BY-LAW 7.1 (REMUNERATION)

The Western Australian Amateur Football League advises all clubs that an Investigation Tribunal has found the Kelmscott Senior Football Club provided fuel cards to 2 players in an undisclosed year between 2010 and 2012. The Tribunal as a result found the Kelmscott Senior Football Club breached WAAFL By-Law 7.1 regarding remuneration of players.

The penalty as prescribed in the WAAFL By-Laws will be relegation from B Grade to C1 Grade for the 2013 season. The club has also been fined $5000.
As a result, the Willetton Amateur Football Club will remain in B Grade for the 2013 season.

The Competition Integrity Sub Committee continues to investigate the remuneration of players, and will refer matters to Investigating Tribunals.

DAVID ARMSTRONG
GENERAL MANAGER
6 November 2012

Need to either stamp this out or allow clubs to pay players.
Good to see the league has started penalizing clubs. I dare say Kelmscott won't be the last club to be found to be paying players.

This has been an ongoing issue throughout the Amateurs for years. Will be interesting to see the extent of the WAAFL's investigations and if any further penalties are imposed on clubs.

I would say that alarm bells occur when quality WAFL calibre players or “high profile names” roll out for lower grade teams, not always the case but it would surely get the WAAFL’s attention and potentially prompt an investigation. Would be a lot harder to prove at A & B Grade level I would have thought.

Agree with Shiz in that it has to be an all or nothing approach to this as regulation is very difficult.

Also, there hasn’t been any mention of consequences for the payers involved.

Do the Amateur clubs have a Salary cap if they are allowed to have a salary at all? You hear of so many X WAFL players playing for clubs for large payments.

Officially there is no player payments to be made at all. I would say that some clubs have a slush fund or other means (private sponsorship, extra player awards, free booze etc) for getting around the rules.

The WAAFL are also further tightening the remuneration policies on coaches and assistants. Over the years clubs have gotten away with playing marquee players legally as naming them as Assistant coaches. I believe you aren’t allowed to this anymore and there are also caps on Head Coaches remuneration.

However, where there is a will there is a way and regulation is very difficult.

Thanks Get Around me.. Can see what your saying and the Brown envelope still exists. Petrol cards a good idea but obviously that fell through.
Maybe I am getting my codes mixed up as I am sure Country Football can make payments as you hear of players getting 500 a game etc in the country.
So we have a Country league that can make payments and must have a salary cap??
and on the other side we have Amateurs who cannot be paid or remunerated via other means.. e.g free drinks,fuel cards and so many other methods of getting a bit of money to them. Sounds like Prohibition in the USA it didnt work.

Maybe the Amateur ruling body should look at rewriting their rules and constitution to allow players to be paid as at least it would be in the open and there would be some accountability.
Lets be honest the WAFL are not professional footballers yet the WAFL clubs do make match payments as do Country Clubs so why not at Amateur level?

It is supposed to be an "Amateur" competition, hence NO payemnts are allowed. CLubs are allowed to provide up to $350 in match awards across a grade i.e. If the club has C1, C1R and COlts the $350 includes all three teams. Country leagues are open slather, hence the reason guys go bush for $$$$.

Just set up a salary cap and be done with it.

It is time the WAAFL opened their eyes and stopped believing it does not happen in all grades.

It will work alot better and the clubs I believe will all benefit in the long run.

Disco Knight wrote: Just set up a salary cap and be done with it.

It is time the WAAFL opened their eyes and stopped believing it does not happen in all grades.

It will work alot better and the clubs I believe will all benefit in the long run.

There basically is one... First - A coach can be paid upto $16,000 ?!?! can't tell me that there is no gentlemen agreements with coach & recruits (for high paid coaches).

Second - Clubs are allowed to pay cash performance based awards. $200 to a B.O.G. seems like a payment.

There needs to be semi-professional football in Perth. Obviously the Sunday League went belly up - but if it was a Saturday based Football League; would it have survived?

Dicky, the policy is quite clear in the By-Laws which I have reproduced for you below. Given the limitations of the payments ($15k total in coaching fees per club and $350 per week in total match payment awards per club it does nothing else except encourage abuse. The WAAFL needs to apply a workable financial reward system to maintain players and coaches or we will continue to see abuses of the system and coaches and players being lost to country leagues.


7. REMUNERATION

7.1 Any club which makes payment, either directly or indirectly including via a third party, by remuneration, earnings or reward whatsoever (whether by way of match payments, sponsorship, reimbursement of expenses, including travel expenses or otherwise) to any of its players (except as set out in by law 7.2) shall be:
(a) ineligible for finals in the current football season and be relegated to the next lowest grade for the following football season;
(b) fined a sum not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000),

7.1.1 The player or players who has or have received such payment or reward shall:
(a) be fined a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2000);
(b) have their registration to play cancelled pursuant to by law 3.5 for a minimum period of five (5) years or until such time as a new application for registration has been lodged with and approved by the Board.

7.2 Clubs are permitted to provide for and make match day awards in recognition of performance. These awards are not permitted to be in a sum beyond the maximum value of $350 that is reviewed and determined by the Board for adoption for each season. Any club directed to do so in writing by the Remuneration Subcommittee is required to submit a list of players who have received match day awards stating the value of the awards and the game or games for which the awards were made, such list to be verified by statutory declaration. Any club providing awards, or any player receiving awards, in a greater amount than as determined by the policy
guidelines to be the maximum sum allowed will be deemed to be in breach of by law 7.1 or 7.1.1 as the case
may be and be subject to the penalties therein prescribed.

7.3 Any club official, senior league coach, member or player, upon being directed to do so by the Remuneration Committee or Investigation Tribunal appointed pursuant to by law 8.6 shall be required to appear before the Tribunal and answer questions directed to him or her and if required to do so by the Tribunal, verify the answers by statutory declaration. If any person upon being directed to do so refuses or fails to sign a statutory declaration, in the case of an official or senior league coach, the refusal or failure will be deemed to be a breach by the club of by law 7.1 and in the case of a player, be deemed to be a breach of by law 7.1.1 and the club and player or players will be subject to the prescribed penalties in by laws 7.1 and 7.1.1 as the case may be.

7.4 Only the senior coach whether playing or non-playing of each team in a club may be remunerated for his knowledge and service as a coach without forfeiting his amateur status or breaching by law 7.1 and 7.1.1 and hence remain eligible to play. Only one (1) senior coach is permitted for each team at the club. A club is required to provide the League with a written list confirming the senior coach for each team in the club prior to the commencement of each season or by 1 April, whichever is the later. Any person who is not named in the written list, such as an assistant coach, who receives remuneration will be deemed to be in breach of by-law 7.1.1 and will ineligible to play and be subject to the penalties prescribed by by law 7.1.1. The club will also be deemed to be in breach of by law 7.1 and be subject to the prescribed penalty.

7.5 The maximum remuneration a senior coach is permitted to receive, and a club is permitted to make, is $15,000. A club is not permitted to remunerate its coaches beyond the total amount which is reviewed and prescribed by the Board for adoption each season. Each club is required to submit to the League in writing full details of the remuneration packages paid to each of its coaches by no later than the commencement of each season or 1 April, whichever is the later. If any club fails or refuses to comply with the requirement to provide written details of its coaches’ remuneration packages, the club will be ineligible to play until the requirement is complied with.

7.6 A fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) may be imposed by the Board upon any club who makes, or senior coach who receives, remuneration in an amount greater than fixed by this by law and the coach shall be suspended from coaching any WAAFL club in any capacity for a period of five (5) years from the imposition of the suspension.

7.7 Any other person at a club who receives remuneration either directly or indirectly for any other role or service to the club except as set out in by law 7.2 will be ineligible to play in the WAAFL except where a written application has been submitted and exemption approved by the remuneration sub-committee. The sub-committee may approve an application as it deems appropriate. A non-exempted person who receives remuneration and plays for a club will result in penalties as set out in by laws 7.1 and 7.1.1.

7.8 The maximum match day award permitted to be received by each team at a club is determined in the policy guidelines adopted and issued each season. A club is not permitted to remunerate the match day awards beyond the total amount which is prescribed and determined by the Board in the policy guidelines adopted and issued each season. Each club is required to submit to the League upon request in writing full details of each match day awards provided for each of its teams. If any club fails or refuses to comply with the requirement to provide written details of its match day awards, the club will be ineligible to play until the requirement is complied with. The club will also be deemed to be in breach of by law 7.1 and be subject to the prescribed penalty.