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Extensive whistleblower testimony provided to SPORT & POLITICS shows Football Queensland (FQ) to be riven by allegations of sexual misconduct, racism, bullying and sexism.

It is alleged that its President Ben Richardson – who we revealed in August to have lied extensively on his CV ahead of the federation’s election – rose to office off the back of a mishandled sexual misconduct case.

Further allegations include:

• misuse of funds
• culture of paranoia and fear
• racism
• sexism
• faulty HR and recruitment processes

They further bring into question why Football Federation Australia (FFA) has not intervened in the ongoing saga of a state federation that seems to be out of control.

Instead, we understand that the FFA CEO, James Johnson, has partnered with Football Queensland in a pilot project on governance.

Christmas hijinks

When Football Queensland’s staff and directors gather at the Wilston home of its CEO Robert Cavallucci this Friday (11 December) for the organisation’s Christmas party, the bosses of the troubled state federation will be hoping that the event passes more peaceably than the Christmas Party it staged two years ago.

Hosted at the Pineapple Hotel near the Gabba, Football Queensland’s 2018 Christmas party was a boozy, raucous and fun affair. The state federation had flown down members from its zones for a day of meetings, which were to be concluded with a night of partying. The Pineapple has been serving food and booze to Brisbanites for 150 years and offers ‘signature steaks, pub classics, woodfired pizzas and bar snacks’ to its patrons. Its bar, it boasts, ‘projects gentlemanly character mixed with a good dash of larrikin.’ Although it was still only November, everyone was enjoying themselves.

But at the president’s table, the conversation took on a more sordid complexion. A female member of staff had attracted the attention of Glenn Smith, then president, who was deep in conversation with another board member, Tony Davis.

‘He made a lewd and disgusting comment about the size of her breasts,’ said a FQ staffer.

The staff member who was subject of this unwanted attention wasn’t present at the table, but two other colleagues were. Appalled by the conduct of the organisation’s president they reported the comments to Football Queensland’s then CEO Richard Griffiths.

Over the past week a number of individuals connected with Bonita Mersiades’s fight for justice against a spurious defamation action that is intended to destroy her (remember, the plaintiffs Benjamin Richardson and Robert Cavallucci are seeking $800,000 PLUS interest) have encountered the sharp end of these twenty-first century crimes.

Hacking. Fake email accounts. Denial-of-service attacks.

Cybercrime.

We published our first investigation on the Ben Richardson case last Friday. It has caused a stir in Australia, far beyond the football community.

Only a few hours later, last weekend, and again on the early hours of Wednesday, right after the publication of our third article, this website encountered at least two separate denial of service attempts and was for a short period not accessible.

Investigators have told us these crude attacks were linked to a single computer in Queensland, Australia.

Mysterious.

Take that @FFA!

Listen to the players, to legends, to Australia’s Golden Generation, @CraigMoore_18 and his WC2006 fellows.

Their powerful statement on the @FootballQLD madness: They fully support @BonitaMersiades.

‚In going after one of us, you are going after all of us.‘ pic.twitter.com/PD3R3awc3F

— SPORT & POLITICS (@JensWeinreich) August 4, 2020

This is part 3 of our series on alarming problems of Good Governance in Australian football federations, on the suppression of free journalism, threats to whistleblowers and, in particular, on the curious case of Benjamin Richardson, president of Football Queensland (FQ).

According to whistleblower testimony Football Queensland hired an expensive crisis management consultancy following publication of articles in the Brisbane Courier-Mail (‘Let’s tackle junior sport’s absurd fees’/paywall) and Football Today (‘Cost of paying increases in Queensland’) about its chairman Ben Richardson paying himself $44,000.

The regional football association may have paid as much as $15,000 for these ‘crisis management’ services to Rowland, which was once Australia’s largest independent PR agency and is now a part of the Fleishmanhillard network. FQ is currently engaged in an expensive and spurious defamation case against Australian whistleblower and writer, Bonita Mersiades over one of the articles.

Benjamin Richardson and Robert Cavallucci, CEO of Football Queensland, instigated by their lawyer Ashley Tiplady (Mills Oakley), want to destroy Mersiades for her factually correct report. They are chasing a grand total of $800,000 reparations from Mersiades –  plus interest – in the Queensland courts.

Not only do they use football’s money for their dubious legal attempt to destroy Mersiades; they waste even more of FQ’s money – which belongs to mums and dads and their kids who pay their fees in good faith – for the services of an expensive PR and crisis management company.

We have written about this dubious case here, and we provided the most important documents that will, perhaps, lead to investigations of relevant authorities.

Let’s not kid ourselves: the Olympic Games can not and will not take place in Tokyo this year. Big appeals are not necessary. Sooner or later, the reality will catch up even with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The Olympic Games are not immune to COVID-19, even if the Lords of the Rings in the last few weeks have given that impression through actions that are difficult to understand. The first IOC member, Prince Albert of Monaco, has contracted the virus and is in quarantine. And Greek IOC member Spyros Capralos, once involved in illegal Olympic ticketing, indicated when he handed the Olympic torch over to the Japanese that the fire could defeat the corona virus.

If only it was that easy.

Wenn du glaubst, es geht nicht schlimmer, kommt Thomas Bach mit einem weiteren seiner dubiosen Olympic Summits daher.

This is the most mendacious propaganda declaration on earth. Thomas Bach‘s dubious ‚Olympic Summit‘ condems ‚politicisation of sport‘ but don‘t mention IOC buddies Putin, Emir Tamim, Xi Jinping, NOC leaders and dictators Lukachenko, Aliyev, Berdimukhamedov, Rahmon -MBS and others pic.twitter.com/W0bF3UjYyg

— SPORT & POLITICS (@JensWeinreich) December 7, 2019

Ich hatte es angekündigt und in der vergangenen Woche mehrfach vor der sogenannten Declaration des Bach-Gipfels gewarnt, im SPIEGEL, in der Berliner Zeitung und hier im Blog.

ALPENSIA. Mensch, kaum lasse ich mich mal vom Sport treiben, verpasse ich das Beste:

Doping bringt nichts beim Curling? Russen probieren alles. #PyeongChang2018 https://t.co/wu30TmqNCt

— Jens Weinreich (@JensWeinreich) February 18, 2018

21.18 Uhr: Nichts als Häme. Diese Journalisten. Unmöglich.

Wer reinen Herzens ist und noch nie gedopt hat, der schiebe den ersten Stein.

— Thomas Nowag (@Dagobert95) February 18, 2018

Ein Mann, der im Team mit seiner Frau dem Sport nachgeht – da kann schon Leistungsdruck entstehen, das man ein Herzmittel braucht. Ich habe Verständnis. #curling #PyeongChang2018

— Günter Klein (@guek62) February 18, 2018

Sicherlich nur ein ärgerlicher Einzelfall (wenn er bestätigt wird) und für die Schlussfeierentscheidung nicht relevant. Oder, @ChKlaue ? pic.twitter.com/tFxaZrjWGX

— Jörg Mebus (@JMebus) February 18, 2018

[caption id="attachment_27156" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Foto: IOC Media[/caption]

GANGNEUNG. Meine gestrigen Anmerkungen zum Friedensnobelpreisthema habe ich für Play the Game ins Englische übertragen, soweit ich es vermochte. Dies sei auch hier zur Diskussion gestellt:

In the International Olympic Committee (IOC), there is a growing gap between appearance and reality, claim and reality. The huge contradictions cannot be ignored. There is the reality of doping, and not only emanating from the Russian state doping system, but also from the various forms of ‘Olympic crime’. Especially in connection with the Olympic Games in Sochi, the medal count of which will still be shaken up for years to come, the IOC has shown that it does not protect the clean athletes. Athletes around the world have lost confidence. However, everything will change now, the promise sounds.

The gloomy headlines that have dominated the Olympic world for many years are met with energetic, yet desperate attempts to invoke lofty Olympic ideals. When the need is biggest, old Coubertin once again must come to rescue.

In PyeongChang, at the XXIII Winter Olympics in the southern part of the divided Korean peninsula, the IOC promotes itself as an angel of peace. „Peace and reconciliation“, it is called in February 2018. In the summer of 1988, when Olympia first appeared in South Korea, it was put more simply, in the Buddhist sense, „peace and harmony“.

In 1988, hundreds of white doves died in the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony in Seoul. Since then, no living pigeons have been released at the ceremonies. On the 9th of February, at the opening ceremony in PyeongChang, instead, a massive peace dove was formed by human bodies.

The symbolism is clear.

Sentimental headlines cover for fundamental problems.