Blues agent reveals secret cash scheme
A PLAYER agent at the centre of the Carlton salary cap scandal has confessed to receiving $ 750,000 in secret cash payments across multiple seasons.
David Allison, who became a quadriplegic after a 2007 car accident in Port Douglas, has detailed the extent of his involvement in the cheating saga that continues to haunt the Blues 16 years after the AFL handed down its devastating penalties.
Asked how much money he had received in underthe- table player payments in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Allison told the the Townsville Bulletin: “Across a five- year period – there would be no doubt in my mind it would be three- quarters of a million bucks.
“It was always cash .... and it wasn’t only me that was paid that type of money.
“In those days there was a lot of cash money made available – and I know for a fact that it still goes on today – but not to the degree that it did back in those days.”
Carlton was fined almost $ 1 million and stripped of a suite of prized draft picks over the rorting scandal in November 2002.
Past and present club figures contacted by the Townsville Bulletin insist deep divisions remain at Carlton as a result of the AFL investigation. Blues list boss Stephen Silvagni was one of three players who agreed to co- operate with AFL investi- gators at the time – a move that still angers supporters of outspoken ex- president John Elliott.
Allison said the cash payments, usually arriving in brown paper bags, were always made by a wealthy third- party businessman, who he declined to name, and never came directly from the club.
He claimed club sponsors were also involved in complex financial arrangements involving players’ private companies. Although his players always declared the extra payments with the tax office, they were kept secret from the AFL, Allison said. He stressed no laws were broken.
The ex- agent represented about 10 Carlton players through the period investigated by the AFL, including 1995 premiership stars Anthony Koutoufides and Fraser Brown. Players publicly linked to the scandal at the time included Brown, Silvagni, Craig Bradley and Stephen O’Reilly.
Koutoufides was not involved but another Allison client, Blues ruckman Matthew Allan, was also sanctioned for receiving undisclosed payments.
“There was a lot of innuendo at the time that Kouta was earning this, he was earning that,” Allison said.
“And if Kouta was getting paid $ 1 million a season that left f.. k all to be paid to so many players, and that’s what I think instigated the whole investigation.”
Silvagni and Bradley told the AFL the extra money they were promised by the club was never paid.
Allison said he had been tipped off about the Carlton investigation well before the story was made public in August 2002.
“The AFL were investigating it before then, believe me,” he said.
“It was actually a committee man that told me some inquiries were being made.”
Pressed on the identity of the bagman behind the salary cap scandal, Allison said: “A very wealthy businessman. I can’t say who, mate.”
Key players in the saga including Brown, Silvagni and Allan declined to comment this week. Bradley did not return a call.