The AFL has been urged to consider raising ticket prices in order to establish a multi-million dollar compensation fund to assist community footballers who sustain life-altering injuries while playing the game.
Pressure to financially care for grassroots players has been mounting since a former West Australian local player, Jamie Anderson, was left a tetraplegic after an on-field incident in 2015. Anderson was only offered a maximum $20,000 insurance payout and subsequently struggled to cope with various medical bills.
The league eventually increased the offer to $75,000. However, in contrast, if Anderson had he been injured in a motor vehicle accident, he would have been able to access as much as $4 million in insurance.
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Former barrister and 1966 St Kilda premiership player Brian Sierakowski said the AFL had to consider a $1 levy on every ticket as a way to raise funds. The hope is that with an estimated 7 million fans walking through the turnstiles every year, a $21 million fund could be established within three seasons.
“It is totally inefficient… in fact it’s quite laughable,” Sierakowski told 9News Perth on the current $20,000 maximum payout for injured local players.
“This is not an indictment on the AFL, but here we are dealing with boys and possibly girls in the future who have suffered tetraplegia. In normal common law, if they were to prove negligence, they may get damages of anywhere between $5-10 million. These people who suffer this type of injury in our great game of football are being offered $20,000.”
Sierakowski suggested that the AFL should be pioneers in this space, insisting that other codes could also raise similar funds through an increase in ticket prices.
“It could be (applied to other sports). What we want to do is be the forerunners in setting up a fund or a charitable trust to cater for this, and that doesn’t deny all the sporting codes to do the same if people are interested,” he said.
“If the AFL don’t run with this and display what I would argue as good governance and engage this as a good corporate citizen should, then we as mums and dads can run the whole thing ourselves. We don’t need insurance to cover it.”