Big clubs now have louder voice: Demetriou
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou believes having representatives from West Coast, Collingwood and Hawthorn on the equalisation sub-commitee has given powerful clubs a voice in the debate ahead of today’s meeting of club presidents and CEOs in Adelaide.
The club heads will meet to discuss how to manage the gap between rich and poor clubs while also preventing football department spending from spiralling out of control.
A luxury tax has been discussed where clubs would be charged 50c for every dollar they spend over a football department spending cap.
Demetriou said having Trevor Nisbett, Eddie McGuire and Andrew Newbold on the sub-committee had helped and now it was important for every club to have their say in what he expected would be a "rigorous debate".
"The principles are the most important thing," Demetriou said at Adelaide airport this morning.
"The principles around making sure that we don't bring the big clubs backwards - we lift the bottom ones up. Making sure we put a handbrake on the spending of the football departments.
"Making sure that no club is financially disadvantaged significantly. There's lots of principles but it's important that everyone gets an opportunity to hear what's being presented and they get an opportunity to represent their club.
"Clubs will have different views so it's not going to be easy, but we'll continue to work through it."
The club chiefs will remain in South Australia for tomorrow's season launch and they will also take part in a tour of the redeveloped Adelaide Oval.
