Geelong has been fined $77,500 by the AFL after a lengthy investigation found the club failed to properly disclose multiple third-party payment arrangements across several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The league on Wednesday confirmed the sanction followed an extended audit into the side’s Total Player Payment records, which uncovered what it described as \u201ca series of non-disclosures\u201d involving third parties and club associates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the investigation did not identify any breaches of salary cap or player movement rules, the AFL said the club\u2019s reporting practices had fallen short of compliance expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Extended Audit found, on the basis of the information obtained and reviewed by the AFL, that the Club did not breach the AFL TPP Limit nor the AFL player movement rules in any season within the timeframe assessed,\u201d the league said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Extended Audit discovered a series of non-disclosures and\/or late disclosures of arrangements with Club associates and third parties, that were required to be reported to the AFL.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the total fine, $40,000 has been suspended for two years – meaning Geelong will only pay $37,500. This is provided the club does not breach Total Player Payment or Soft Cap rules within the next 24 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sanction follows months of scrutiny after the AFL launched an extended audit into the club\u2019s financial disclosures in 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier questions had been raised around potential issues involving commercial partnerships linked to player and coaching deals, including Bailey Smith\u2019s arrangement with Cotton On and Chris Scott\u2019s with Morris Finance – both major Geelong sponsors – which the club is required to disclose.<\/p>\n
In Wednesday\u2019s statement, the AFL stopped short of naming any specific cases tied to the non-disclosures but confirmed that issues also existed within the club\u2019s AFLW program. These were deemed to be administrative in nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn respect of the AFLW program, the non-disclosures identified were found to be administrative errors and do not amount to material breaches of the TPP Rules or player movement rules,\u201d the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of the ruling, the league has directed Geelong to strengthen its internal reporting procedures, including the creation of an \u201cactive register\u201d detailing all current and future arrangements with associates and external parties. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The registers must be available for inspection by the AFL at any time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geelong has accepted the findings and pledged to tighten its compliance and governance processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club and its personnel have fully cooperated throughout the audit process and worked closely with the AFL and EY to transparently provide access, documentation and information as required,\u201d said Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge the outcome of the audit has confirmed the Club has not breached AFL TPP limits nor the AFL player movement rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also acknowledge the audit identified a number of non-disclosure items over the six-year period. We accept the AFL\u2019s sanctions for these errors and will strengthen our education and governance processes moving forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AFL said it considers the matter closed but warned that clubs are expected to maintain full transparency in all commercial and third-party dealings going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong has been fined $77,500 by the AFL after a lengthy investigation found the club failed to properly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,124343,64,51595,63,55,639,13658,124341,85,124342],"class_list":["post-198418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-fines","tag-au","tag-audit","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-geelong","tag-geelong-fines","tag-sports","tag-third-party-agreements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}