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AFL hit with racism class action
The Australian Football League has been hit with a landmark class action for its alleged failure to protect players from racial abuse.
Naomi Neilson
The class action, brought by Margalit Injury Lawyers, was filed in the Victoria Supreme Court late last week and is being led by former North Melbourne player Phil Krakouer and six other unnamed people.
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The writ alleged the AFL breached its duty to them by failing to enforce rules to prevent the racial abuse.
Mr Krakouer, who was recently inducted into the WA Football Hall of Fame, alleged in a statement that the AFL has “swept” the issue of racism “under the carpet for too long”.
“For decades, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people of colour have been racially abused while playing AFL, and we feel the AFL sat back and watched it all go by,” Mr Krakouer said.
He added he was 22 when he started playing and had hoped “great things” were going to happen.
“It was a professional sport, and the AFL allowed us to be abused and traumatised,” Mr Krakouer said.
“We signed up to play football, not to be racially abused.”
In a statement provided to media, Margalit Injury Lawyers managing principal Michel Margalit said the league has been aware of the issue and “failed to take decisive action to protect players”.
“The racial abuse suffered by players was extreme – not just words, but repugnant physical acts such as spitting and violence,” she said.
The six other people, who have chosen to remain anonymous for now, were players or officials between 1975 and 2022.
