More valuable than a doctor? Football administrator pay in spotlight but salaries remain a mystery

The explosive details around the $315,000 pay packet of Football Queensland’s chief executive have made headlines in 2020, but parents and players remain in the dark about how much other football bosses around the country earn.

Not one of Australia’s other nine major football associations was prepared to reveal how much their CEO takes home, either in their annual reports or when surveyed by the ABC.

The organisations are entitled to withhold this information and five of them, including Football Australia (FA), provided the same pro-forma response to ABC enquiries.

These five bodies — FA, Football Victoria, Football West, Northern NSW Football and Football NT — declared in unison:

“The remuneration levels are linked to performance and to employment agreements and it is not considered that the disclosure and reporting of the personal details of employees is warranted.”

Robert McMurtrie, managing director of the company operating Sportspeople Recruitment, said salaries in sport had increased as directors have become responsible for ever-increasing budgets since the 1980s and the rise of professionalism.

“By the early 2000s, Australian sport management professionals were in high demand around the world, creating a retention and attraction dilemma for Australian employers,” he said.

According to Mr McMurtrie, Australia’s state football association CEOs’ base salaries are typically in the range of $150,000 to $350,000 per year.

The salary for Football Queensland’s chief executive reportedly increased from $170,000 to $315,000 when Robert Cavallucci took the role in 2019.

His remuneration only came to light when football whistleblower Bonita Mersiades reported it in January on her website Football Today. She is currently being sued for defamation by Football Queensland chairman Ben Richardson and Mr Cavallucci, a matter which has been covered by the ABC.

Mr McMurtrie said it was important to recognise some football bodies were much larger than others, but noted: “Unfortunately, the most consistent thing about salaries in the sport sector tends to be the inconsistencies.”

According to the ATO, ordinary medical practitioners earn $215,000 per year on average, increasing to $300,000 for internal medicine specialists and $400,000 for surgeons.

Chief executives across the entire economy earn $170,000 on average.

Spotlight on administration costs

The cost of playing football has long been a concern for players and those involved in the game.

Unlike the AFL, which can subsidise junior football through broadcast income from elite competitions, football administrators rely more on contributions from participants to balance their finances.

The annual reports of the member associations give some clues as to how much money is being spent on staff.

Football NSW and Football Victoria have the largest staff expenditure, but also receive the most revenue.

Some reports also provide information about the remuneration paid to “key management personnel”, or those with decision-making responsibilities.

Key management personnel are defined by the Australian Accounting Standards Board as “those persons having the authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the entity, directly or indirectly”.

Different entities may define these people slightly differently, but Football Victoria spent the most in 2019 among organisations that reported. It noted $108,000 in restructuring costs as part of its expenditure after three top staff changed roles during the year.

A Football NSW spokesperson said chief executive Stuart Hodge provided value.

“This year in particular, the CEO has led the sport through the most challenging situation it has ever faced, and worked closely with the NSW Government, public health officials and Football NSW’s members to ensure grassroots football — the state’s largest team sport by numbers of participants — was resumed in a safe and sustainable way.”

Sam Ciccarello, President of Football South Australia, said chief executive Michael Carter provided excellent service and value to members, stakeholders and constituents.

“We have a highly experienced professional who consistently delivers great outcomes for football as formally reviewed and assessed, annually, against a range of quantitative measures and qualitative indicators.”

Football Federation Tasmania and Capital Football did not return requests to comment.

Push for efficiency

The Federal Government is encouraging sports administration to streamline its operations.

It launched a program called One Management in 2018 encouraging administrators to bring together a sport’s strategy, financial systems and workforce.

Golf Australia was one of the first sports to undertake reforms. Then-CEO Stephen Pitt noted, “we’ve had eight bodies operating in the same space”.

“There’s a lot of duplication, there’s a lot of overlap, there’s a lot of inefficiency.”

Mr Pitt stepped down after 11 years in the role in February and progress on the reform is slow.

Chair Andrew Newbold said in this year’s annual report that Golf Western Australia and Golf New South Wales “are not part of the One Golf structure for the mutual benefit of the game of golf”.

Recruitment expert Mr McMurtrie said further adoption of this model will change the role of CEOs.

“Where changes have been adopted by other sports there has been a shift of some CEOs to headquarters and into national roles, perhaps with a salary uplift given operating responsibilities, and other CEO roles ceasing to exist,” he said.

But whatever the model, he warned there will also be tension over the value of sport administrators.

“In many ways, the value of any employee has always been and appears to continue to be a matter of debate within any membership or stakeholder-based organisation.”

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