The AFL Commission is the governing body of the Australian Football League Limited (AFL), its subsidiaries and controlled entities. Richard Goyder has been chairman since 4 April 2017, replacing Mike Fitzpatrick.
It was formed in 1985 as the VFL Commission, and gained its current name in 1990 in conjunction with the renaming of the VFL competition to the Australian Football League.
Its constitution self-proclaims the commission to be the "keeper of the code" responsible for the sport of Australian football. As part of its role, the Commission is responsible for the Laws of Australian Football. It is also responsible for worldwide player acknowledgement through the Australian Football Hall of Fame, All-Australian team and World (formerly All-International) Team.
The Commission controls the AFL competition and maintains a professional talent pathway for players through the AFL Draft, AFL Draft Combine, AFL Academy and academies through its member clubs and affiliated bodies, Underage Men's and Underage Women's championships, the Australian Football (AFL) International Cup and through its worldwide affiliates, numerous regional representative tournaments.
The Commission organises the highest level of representative competition in Australia, being responsible for senior State of Origin competition from 1991 to its cessation in 1999. Since 1998, it has also overseen Australia's involvement in the International Rules Series.
Scope of governance
The AFL Commission has been responsible for the administration of the AFL competition since 1993, when the AFL Board of Directors voted itself out of existence after 96 years of operation. Its constitution self-proclaims the Commission to be the "keeper of the code" responsible for the sport of Australian football.
The Commission later became responsible for the national administration of the sport (since 1995, when the Australian National Football Council ceased operations after 89 years), as well as its international administration (since 2002, when it absorbed the International Australian Football Council) and the administration of women's football (since 2010, when it took over the operations of Women's Football Australia, which ceased operations in 2015).
Leagues affiliated with or owned by the AFL Commission have names beginning with AFL, and incorporate the AFL logo, and now owns the governing body for Australia's most populous eastern region through the AFL NSW/ACT and has strong affiliations with all other states. The AFL also promotes and brands the sport under its own name instead of the official name of Australian Football, especially in developing areas where the sport is not well known and the AFL has a major stake in the local governing bodies.
The ten commissioners are elected by the 18 AFL clubs, with each of the 18 clubs entitled to make nominations, but other Australian Football leagues, associations and clubs do not have any control or representation.
The AFL Commission's primary role is to oversee the profitability of its competitions, its primary competitions being the AFL and AFL Women's. As such, it has a direct stake in many of its member clubs.
It also approves the administration of new club licenses, and has been involved in the expansion of the national competition since 1987, being instrumental in the merger that created the Brisbane Lions. The Commission also fully owns the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Other clubs to have an AFL Commission appointed board include the Sydney Swans, the Gold Coast Suns, Adelaide Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club. The Commission operates a Competitive Balance Fund, which redistributes profits to the clubs most in need to help ensure that all of its member clubs are financially sustainable in the long-term.
Financially, the Commission is highly co-dependent on the success of the AFL and the majority of its funding comes from AFL competition broadcasting rights. The 2025-2031 rights will earn $4.5 billion, the most lucrative in Australian sporting history. The Commission distributes some of the profit from these rights into development of the game.
However, the majority is invested in ensuring that the AFL continues to sustain its future revenues, such as protecting the primacy of the competition, as well as growing its broadcast audience, talent pathways and professionalism to attract the best available players (from junior development programs and high performance athletes from around the world).