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More than $100,000 in taxpayer funds were used to purchase uniforms, sneakers and Frank Green water bottles at a Sydney A-League franchise, while $44,000 was paid to companies where the club’s executives and senior staff held a financial interest.
These costs were among 25 expenses that public auditor Grant Thornton flagged as requiring further explanation under an audit of the $14.5 million Football in Schools program. The audit found broad non-compliance with the funding deed for both the Macarthur Bulls and the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Documents provided to parliament show Macarthur spent $92,326.62 for “uniforms” from Summit, along with $10,000 for Asics footwear and $1766 for Frank Green water bottles. The audit was “unable to verify the validity” of the Asics transaction because the club did not provide an invoice.
Two Isuzu utes, valued at $60,000 and $55,000, respectively, were also charged to taxpayers. The audit team noted the appropriateness of the expenditure should be raised with the Department of Education. A further $30,000 was charged for the “use of the vehicle asset itself”.
A Herald investigation has highlighted issues with the Football in Schools program, including that Macarthur FC, based in Sydney’s south-west, claimed nearly 43 per cent of the $2 million yearly funding to underwrite head office costs.
Club chairman Gino Marra has been linked to tens of thousands of dollars in donations, through various companies he directs or holds a financial interest in, to south-west Sydney Labor MPs.
Financial records show Macarthur charged taxpayers $35,454 for a facility space they “shared” with Titanium Waste Management. Marra, chief executive Sam Krslovic and board member Rocco Mammone are all directors and hold a financial interest in the waste management company.
Sportzology Pty Ltd was paid $8500 to “source uniforms for the clinics and provide children with a T-shirt”. The director and sole shareholder of the company is Bill Drossos, who has served as Macarthur’s head of partnerships since 2020.
Two days before the March 2023 state election, Labor announced $8 million in funding for school soccer clinics run by the Bulls, which expanded on the $6.5 million offered to Western Sydney Wanderers to run a similar program.
The premier’s office and Department of Education did not respond to questions about the appropriateness of the spending, while a spokesman for Education Minister Prue Car said the department was working closely with both clubs to ensure they were compliant.
“The NSW government is committed to ensuring grants funding is used appropriately. That’s why grants management oversight processes are in place,” he said.
Macarthur FC did not respond to a request for comment.
The Herald previously revealed some of Macarthur FC’s school clinics had attendances that exceeded schools’ total enrolment, while the club claimed hundreds of thousands on executive wages and office costs.
Despite the audit identifying flaws, there was no ministerial oversight of the findings or the decision to proceed because the then-acting education minister, Courtney Houssos, had recused herself from the matter.
The documents reveal the department and Grant Thornton held broad concerns about several expense claims made by the Macarthur Bulls, while the conduct of the club’s chief executive throughout the audit was also flagged.
Grant Thornton questioned the way Macarthur apportioned the annual salaries of nominated staff to the program, such as 15 per cent for the chief executive, 30 per cent of the “finance” salary and 100 per cent of the club’s head of community role.
This differed from the Wanderers’ approach which was “not designed to capture payroll costs for other staff such as CEO”, the auditor noted.
Across Macarthur’s three programs, $300,000 “has been attributed to cancellations”, while the department queried why $170,000 was spent on “evaluation”.
The department calculated in October last year that taxpayers paid $7000 for each of the club’s 193 Bulls in Schools clinics, totalling about $1.4 million in funding.
In late March, department staff questioned the club’s $24,000 claim for “field hire cost” given the clinics were run almost exclusively on school grounds.
After Macarthur charged taxpayers $48,000 for field rental, Grant Thornton’s request for an invoice was rebuffed because the club said the arrangement with Camden Council was “commercial in confidence” but asserted the hiring fee was “considerably below market value”.
The audit sparked tension within Macarthur.Grant Thornton’s problems with the Bulls required the state government to up the auditor’s fee from $45,000 to $52,000.
Minutes from a meeting between the department and the Bulls on November 24 stated Krslovic “raised concerns about the department’s overanalysis [sic] of participant numbers” and claimed “payment still had to be made regardless of how many students actually participated”.
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