The prominent barrister who helped Cardinal George Pell win his appeal at the High Court is advising Football Federation Australia of its contractual rights in the game's standoff with Fox Sports, who could terminate the broadcast deal if the A-League does not resume by June 30.
Sources with knowledge of the deal suggest Fox Sports will have to pay the final quarterly sum for this season, due on April 15, but could issue FFA with a breach notice if the A-League remains postponed by the end of this financial year.
Under the terms of the contract, the FFA is free to postpone the A-League season without punishment so long as they complete the entire season within a contract year, which runs from July 1 until June 30.
FFA is due to decide on April 22 as to whether the season can resume but there appears to be very little prospect of play being resumed in the short term. Senior A-League sources are touting a possible return date in July, but even that isn't certain.
Amid fears that delay could allow Fox Sports to tear up its contract with the A-League – which has three years left to run and is worth $57m a year – sources close to FFA confirmed leading silk Bret Walker SC has been engaged ahead of a potential legal fight with the broadcaster.
Sydney-based Walker is one Australia's foremost legal minds and has taken on a wide range of high-profile cases throughout his career, having represented rugby league players, tobacco companies, politicians and alleged organised crime figures. He also headed the royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin, the review into national security and counter-terrorism legislation, and Swimming Australia's probe of drug use within the country's swimming team at the London Olympics in 2012.
A High Court appeals specialist, Walker successfully argued Cardinal Pell's convictions for sexually abusing two choirboys at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral in 1996 should be quashed.
The involvement of a barrister of Walker's calibre in football's affairs is a sign of how seriously FFA and the A-League is treating the prospect of a court battle with Foxtel, the owners of Fox Sports, to enforce the remainder of the TV contract and other similar arrangements with sponsors which could also come into question.
There are three seasons left to run on the current broadcast deal but Fox Sports has not given any assurances to FFA, clubs or players about the future. The uncertainty has prompted FFA and club owners to begin canvassing potential broadcasters for next season.
Fox Sports is facing a major financial crisis of its own, with more than 200 workers at parent company Foxtel made redundant this week and a further 140 stood down without pay in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Fox is not expected to step away from its obligations with the AFL or NRL, but has been unhappy with the ratings performance of the A-League for some time, and many recent staff cuts have included football-specific presenters, producers and journalists.
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