Football Australia just posted a record loss. Gianni Infantino hailed it ‘a wonderful year’

When Isaac responded to say he did not “have the emails with me now but we’ll find that, we’ll chase that up”, Lorquet pushed further. “Just in transparency … to say that we’re angry is probably an understatement … this is an AICD case study waiting to happen. I think having a board member sitting there and then knowing if there’s agreements set up previously that they will eventually be paid, I think it’s actually a huge disaster. I think addressing and owning that is important. Once you own that, what is the plan going forward to ensure that those things don’t happen?

Because I know there’s another director on the line who’s actually being caught up in a similar situation. It’s not the first time.” Isaac acknowledged the issue as “a source of frustration for all of us”. “It’s something that the board is very strong on ensuring never happens again,” he said. “It happened unfortunately 10 years ago with another director, and history repeated. I mean, the systems and the policies are very clear about directors not being paid while they’re serving.” Equally frustrating might have been the exponential shrinking of board candidates to fill the three vacant seats. Three of the initial six, which included Socceroos great Mark Schwarzer, withdrew before the ballot, leaving three contenders in Paul Bittar, Jon Sutton and Mark Goodrick – all nominated by A-Leagues clubs.

But neither Sutton nor Goodrick were deemed worthy directors by voters, the bulk of which are state federations, meaning the meeting closed with two vacancies.