AFL commissioner Gillon McLachlan says the new CAA will force players to take their financial affairs into account during the season, even if it is not their first priority.
McLachlan made the comments to reporters at a press conference after a meeting of the AFL Players’ Association in Brisbane.
He said there would be an automatic suspension if a player or team “had to take any sort of financial action in the first four or five weeks of the season”.
“There’s no need for a suspension, there’s no penalty for it.
It’s just a fact that if you have financial responsibility you have to take responsibility and you need to pay it, and if you don’t take it, you’re out,” McLachlin said.”
If the player takes it, they are liable.
If they don’t, they can’t take any further action.”
It’s a fair system and it’s a good one.
“McLoughlin said the new deal between the AFL and the NRL would allow clubs to make more money in the long run by making more money from TV and merchandising, and by bringing in more international talent to compete with the likes of the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide.”
I think we’re going to have a stronger competition,” he said.
The CBA is also set to increase the salary cap from $150 million to $175 million.
The league has already made the $1.5 million cut it made to the salary caps of the 2015-16 season, with the salary bill rising to $2.6 million from $2 million.”
We’ve got to be realistic, there is going to be a huge amount of money to spend on player salaries, and the new salary cap has to go in,” McLathlin said of the cap increase.”
But the salary-cap increases that we’re talking about, I think they’re going a long way to give a fair chance for clubs to compete.
“McCallan said the AFLPA would “reject” any proposal that the new cap would mean an increased salary cap for players.”
Our position on this is we’re not going to make any change that would change the salary ceiling of the game for us,” he told reporters.”
So, our position is that we’ve got enough money on our hands, we’ve had a fantastic season and the salary is just too high.””
If you look at the number of clubs that are in the competition, the number that have got under the salary ceilings, there are only four that have been able to keep their clubs competitive.