Talking Footy

Laws target sex pests
By Damian Barrett
November 9, 2005
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,86 ... 11,00.html

AFL players face delisting if they are found guilty in court of sexual misconduct under new football laws effective next season.

Clubs that fail to report to the AFL sexual assault allegations levelled against their players or officials will also face heavy sanctions in the widesweeping policy.

Titled Respect and Responsibility - Creating a safe and inclusive environment for women at all levels of Australian football, its formulation was prompted in March 2004 after allegations of sexual assault were made against two St Kilda footballers.

Experts from a range of fields were consulted in the policy framework.

The policy will also see the AFL:

INTRODUCE anti-sexual harassment and anti-sexual discrimination procedures across all facets of its operations.
CHANGE the "conduct unbecoming" component to player rules to specifically cover sexual misconduct issues.
EMPOWERED to issue heavy sanctions in the event of discovering a "hush money" payment made to a victim by a player, official, agent, associate or club.
ABLE to sanction players found liable of sexual assault in civil court or tribunal findings.
ENDEAVOUR to educate any football person who has engaged in any behaviour associated with an alleged sexual assault.

Penalties available to the AFL for football officials and players who infringe include terminations, delistings, fines and suspensions.

A new position in the AFL structure has been created to assist with the workings of the Respect and Responsibility policies, with Citigroup Asset Management director of human resources (Asia Pacific) Jane Hollman appointed to the role on Monday.

The AFL executive panel will determine an independent person to advise the AFL commission on breaches.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the AFL policies did not seek to usurp existing criminal and civil law.

"The changes to our rules are significant," Demetriou said.

"They send a message to all those involved in the game that the AFL will not tolerate inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment or assault against women.

"Nor will we tolerate a culture that seeks to sweep these issues under the carpet.

"These incidents (in March 2004) made us look into the heart of our game and into the culture of football and this wasn't an easy thing to do.

"It would have been easier to treat these incidents as one-offs, as individual events that had nothing to do with the rest of the football community.

"It would have been easy to make small changes and just wait until the media interest in this issue had passed.

"We were faced with a fundamental challenge and it took a number of very brave, determined and strong women to tell their story and stand up to the public scrutiny and judgment in order for these issues first to be aired."

Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes endorsed the AFL stance.

"It is a great initiative on a significant social issue," Goodes said.

"Time's up on this and if we can be part of changing this, that is great."