| Assocname: | AFL Commission |
| Sport: | Australian rules football |
| Founded: | 1985 |
| Jurisdiction: | AFL, controlled entities and affiliates. |
| Headquarters: | AFL House, 140 Harbour Esplanade, Melbourne Docklands |
| Chairman: | Richard Goyder |
| Replaced: | Australian National Football Council |
| Countryflag: | Australia |
The AFL Commission is the governing body of the Australian Football League Limited (AFL), its subsidiaries and controlled entities. Richard Goyder has been chairman since 4 April 2017, replacing Mike Fitzpatrick.
It was formed in 1985 as the VFL Commission, and gained its current name in 1990 in conjunction with the renaming of the VFL competition to the Australian Football League.
Its constitution self-proclaims the commission to be the "keeper of the code" responsible for the sport of Australian football. As part of its role, the Commission is responsible for the Laws of Australian Football. It is also responsible for worldwide player acknowledgement through the Australian Football Hall of Fame, All-Australian team and World (formerly All-International) Team.
The Commission controls the AFL competition and maintains a professional talent pathway for players through the AFL Draft, AFL Draft Combine, AFL Academy and academies through its member clubs and affiliated bodies, Underage Men's and Underage Women's championships, the Australian Football (AFL) International Cup and through its worldwide affiliates, numerous regional representative tournaments.
The Commission organises the highest level of representative competition in Australia, being responsible for senior State of Origin competition from 1991 to its cessation in 1999.[1] Since 1998, it has also overseen Australia's involvement in the International Rules Series.
The AFL Commission has been responsible for the administration of the AFL competition since 1993, when the AFL Board of Directors voted itself out of existence after 96 years of operation. Its constitution self-proclaims the Commission to be the "keeper of the code" responsible for the sport of Australian football.
The Commission later became responsible for the national administration of the sport (since 1995, when the Australian National Football Council ceased operations after 89 years), as well as its international administration (since 2002, when it absorbed the International Australian Football Council) and the administration of women's football (since 2010, when it took over the operations of Women's Football Australia, which ceased operations in 2015).
Leagues affiliated with or owned by the AFL Commission have names beginning with AFL, and incorporate the AFL logo, and now owns the governing body for Australia's most populous eastern region through the AFL NSW/ACT and has strong affiliations with all other states. The AFL also promotes and brands the sport under its own name instead of the official name of Australian Football, especially in developing areas where the sport is not well known and the AFL has a major stake in the local governing bodies.
The ten commissioners are elected by the 18 AFL clubs, with each of the 18 clubs entitled to make nominations, but other Australian Football leagues, associations and clubs do not have any control or representation.
The AFL Commission's primary role is to oversee the profitability of its competitions, its primary competitions being the AFL and AFL Women's. As such, it has a direct stake in many of its member clubs.
It also approves the administration of new club licenses, and has been involved in the expansion of the national competition since 1987, being instrumental in the merger that created the Brisbane Lions. The Commission also fully owns the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Other clubs to have an AFL Commission appointed board include the Sydney Swans, the Gold Coast Suns, Adelaide Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club. The Commission operates a Competitive Balance Fund, which redistributes profits to the clubs most in need to help ensure that all of its member clubs are financially sustainable in the long-term.[2]
Financially, the Commission is highly co-dependent on the success of the AFL and the majority of its funding comes from AFL competition broadcasting rights. The 2025-2031 rights will earn $4.5 billion, the most lucrative in Australian sporting history. The Commission distributes some of the profit from these rights into development of the game.
However, the majority is invested in ensuring that the AFL continues to sustain its future revenues, such as protecting the primacy of the competition, as well as growing its broadcast audience, talent pathways and professionalism to attract the best available players (from junior development programs and high performance athletes from around the world).
As part of its role, the Commission is responsible for the Australian Football Hall of Fame, the AFL men's underage championships and AFL Women's underage championships. It was also responsible for senior State of Origin competition from 1991 until it ended in 1999.[3]
The Commission was formed to set policy, and has directed the VFL/AFL (known then as the VFL) as the game's most professional league since December 1985.
In 1993, the AFL Commission assumed control of the league's administration from the AFL Board of Directors (in effect, the 15 AFL clubs at that time). Subsequently, the board of directors voted itself out of existence, and a new Memorandum and Articles of Association were adopted for the AFL. It also assumed national governance of the sport (see Principle 2 below) after the ANFC ceased operations in 1995.
This was a significant change of power: between 1985 and 1993, the Commission had required explicit approval by a 75% vote of the League (the teams) for major items such as further expansion, mergers, relocations, and major capital works.
The AFL also created an International Policy in 2005, and absorbed the International Australian Football Council, thus gaining control of the sport worldwide.
In its role as national and international governing body, the AFL Commission also controls and delegates development funding for Australian state and international bodies and leagues. As most of this funding is sourced the revenue and activities associated with the AFL competition, much of the funding is directed to the competition's developing markets. Semi-professional state competitions are generally self-sufficient, and receive a much lower percentage of the AFL's funding. The Commission has established a pathway that features junior Academies and scholarships from representational level up to its member clubs. The highest level is the AFL Academy, with academies for each state being managed by their respective AFL clubs and affiliated governing bodies.
Between 2010 and 2021, the AFL spent between $6–38 million per annum (under 5% of total revenue) on game development grants globally (excluding a one-off COVID-19 Pandemic community football recovery package). With a new TV rights deal in 2022 and to help the game at the grassroots continue its recovery post COVID-19 Pandemic, the Commission increased its community grants to $67 million.[4]
The AFL Commission has a simple structure. There are formal corporate titles for members which currently consists of a chairman, whose role is to oversee meetings, and a chief executive officer, who typically also oversees the operations of the Australian Football League.
Commissioners are elected by the 18 AFL clubs, who each are entitled to make nominations. Should an election be necessary, then the membership is decided by a vote of the AFL clubs. Under the current constitution, the member clubs have the power to veto commission decisions with a two-thirds majority vote.
The current membership of the Commission is:
| Name | Current Role | Appointed |
|---|---|---|
| Chairman | 2017 | |
| Chief Executive Officer | 2023 | |
| Commissioner | 2011 | |
| Commissioner | 2014 | |
| Commissioner | 2015 | |
| Commissioner | 2015 | |
| Commissioner | 2016 | |
| Commissioner | 2016 | |
| Commissioner | 2017 | |
| Professor Helen Milroy | Commissioner | 2018 |
The AFL Commission has also become involved in Australian Football League matters on occasion, both on and off-field. Sometimes these interventions have been in controversial circumstances.
The commission has become involved when players or a club bring the game into disrepute, including:
The AFL Commission has a role in undertaking assessments of expansion clubs and awarding new licences including:
The Commission owns a stake in the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney clubs.
The AFL Commission manages a special fund called the Competitive Balance Fund (CBF) since 2004 as a grant of up to $5 million per club to ensure that member clubs remain financially viable.
The system was later changed to the Annual Special Distribution (ASD) of $6.3 million shared among all clubs,[36] as well as allowing for grants and special concessions, such as payments, to ensure that the AFL member clubs remain viable in the short term. In 2006, the Commission approved a $2.1 million special financial assistance package for Carlton.
In response to clubs increasingly relying on and applying for special funding, in 2008, the Commission recommended removing the fund altogether,[36] but after considerable club protests led by three struggling clubs, the Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and North Melbourne, CEO Andrew Demetriou announced that the ASD would remain.
In early 2009, it increased Melbourne's assistance from $250,000 to $1 million and made a $1 million grant to Port Adelaide.[37]