Gillon McLachlan, the boss of Australian football league (AFL) will most likely face a trial over the way he handled the Essendon drugs saga. This has been made clear by a court ruling in Melbourne, which for the most part went against the league. Many people are punting upon the fate of McLachlan and are speculating about the future of the league. If you too are interested in betting on such possibilities, or football betting in general, make sure that you use free bets offered by various reputed platforms, to test the waters first.
The basis
Mike Fitzpatrick, the former AFL chairman and the current boss Gillon McLachlan are both accused of being involved in deceptive and misleading conduct in relation to the statements they made after the scandal.
Jackson Taylor, a Melbourne-based lawyer filed a case against the AFL bosses in a writ petition in the Supreme Court. Taylor alleged that they both breached consumer laws in order to protect their commercial interests.
Claims that Gillon MacLachlan acted in an unlawful manner
The case is based on a good number of comments, some of them about Maclachlan denying any involvement in engineering of the outcomes of the drugs saga, before the officials and the Bombers players were interviewed. Many people are demanding MacLachlan’s resignation in this regard.
AFL had requested that some parts of the case must be heard in a preliminary hearing in order to restrict the need of witnesses, and for the discovery of documents. They had requested that the proceedings should be heard at a mini-trial, in order to cut expenses. As per AFL, the entire trial could set them back by $ 700,000. However, John Dixon, the Supreme Court judge ruled against that request, particularly because of the two legal questions related to the matter.
One of the questions was about whether the public statements made by Fitzpatrick and MacLachlan could be a part of ‘trade and commerce’ as per the Australian consumer laws.
Another question related to the deed of release will need to be looked into before the case proceeds further.
Judge John Dixon’s ruling implies that there is still a fair chance of Fitzpatrick and MacLachlan being forced to give some sort of evidence at the trial. It’s worth noting that none of the senior AFL executives have faced any questioning in the court all through the Essendon saga.
Mr Taylor has alleged that many of the public statements made by Gillon McLachlan about the doping saga were either deceptive or misleading. The statements include a comment made by him during an AFL 360 interview, stating that AFL had taken ample care to protect the health and safety of many Essendon players who were a part of the supplements program. Mr Taylor has been requesting the Supreme Court to make a firm declaration that AFL, Fitzpatrick and MacLachlan acted in an unlawful manner.
