Financially stricken Australian Football League clubs "have been thrown a lifeline with a bold and sustainable plan" announced on Wednesday that "should better guarantee the competitiveness of the competition," according to Smith & Denham of NEWS LIMITED. And while overspending in football departments "will be taxed more heavily, the controversial revenue or wealth tax paid for two years by 10 clubs has been abolished." In what one club CEO described as a "user-pays system," clubs will be supported from a "discretionary fund," which appears the AFL's best equalization tool after "years of trying different mechanisms." Instead of paying a series of dividends to clubs, "including an annual dividend, the AFL has consolidated all payments to one single amount per club" which is a "simpler and fairer way of transferring money to the clubs." As well, "the poorer clubs will be helped by a savage new set of taxes for clubs that overspend the soft cap" on football department expenditure. For example, from next year, if a club spends more than A$1M ($760,000) over the football department cap, which stands at A$9.3M ($7M), then that money will be taxed at 200%. The discretionary fund to distribute money to the clubs "will use this year’s most successful club" -- Hawthorn -- as its base (NEWS LIMITED, 8/4).
