THE AFL may be forced to introduce independent stewards to police late team changes and to force greater transparency and disclosure on clubs, after an agreement by state gaming ministers this week.
The stewards would also investigate integrity issues, to guard against match fixing, betting on matches by players and officials, and issues such as coaches being sacked.
Legislation could be introduced in all states as early as next year to force sporting bodies such as the AFL to adopt a model that demands greater transparency and flow of information from clubs.
The continued boom in sports betting and the contracts signed by the AFL with betting agencies sparked the concern of Victorian Gaming Minister John Pandazopoulos. The AFL has entered contracts with Tabcorp and Betfair worth about $10 million over five years.
"You would have to have some stewardship structure (in the AFL)," Pandazopoulos said.
"Sporting bodies like the AFL have understandably looked at the enormous growth in sports betting and wanted a share of the revenue. They have seen others earning an income on the back of their game and they want a share, but with the money comes responsibility.
"If you accept revenue you have an obligation that the bets (that are placed) are fair and have less risk of interference to integrity. If you want to earn revenue from gaming you also have an obligation to the punter to do what racing does and disclose as much information as you can, as soon as you can.
"It could be that the AFL, like other sporting bodies, would have to look at having their own internal stewardship arrangements in place. In racing, as an example, they have a steward and they are the independent umpires on some of these things. The AFL has a tribunal which normally only happens after the event.
"Late team changes is the obvious one (to police) because punters need to know as much information as soon as possible and it is a disclosure issue," he said.
In last weekend's round, Essendon's Dustin Fletcher, Dean Rioli and Mark McVeigh were all late withdrawals, while Richmond lost Ray Hall and Andrew Kellaway from their named 22. Changes such as these had the capacity to change the margins in matches — a lucrative punting stream — as well as the overall match result.
AFL commercial operations manager Gillon McLachlan said the league was content with the structures it had in place, but all matters were subject to constant review.
"We have a policy in place we are comfortable with (on the naming of teams and late changes)," McLachlan said.
"People tip and punt on the game in the knowledge that it is a contact sport and people get injured and we want to give clubs the most time possible to have their best team available."
Pandazopoulos said the moves would not necessarily stop AFL clubs making late changes, but would deliver the punter greater certainty that procedures were in place to ensure they would learn of withdrawals as soon as possible.
"Where there is gambling money involved transparency does not mean just a bit of information, it means as much information as soon as you can," he said.
Stewards would also look at "potentially where players play — for example if you had someone who regularly plays full-forward and they played somewhere else", Pandazopoulos said.
"We have a concern about being able to bet on coaches being sacked when people such as board members would clearly have information about that and could make a lot of money out of privileged information not available to the regular punter," he added.
"Sports betting is the fastest-growing gambling product — it is still small scale compared with horse racing and pokies — but we have to make sure these issues are managed as it continues to grow."
State gaming ministers met in Brisbane on Monday and agreed in principle to establish a national model for all sporting bodies to adhere to.
source : SMH.COM.AU
