The football club that used taxpayer grant for coach and player wages, wine and pub meals

The Macarthur Bulls A-League franchise used taxpayer funds intended for school football clinics to offset more than $80,000 worth of player and head coach wages, while staff spent thousands of dollars on wine, pubs and restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse.

An analysis of financial documents shows companies owned or directed by club executives and senior staff appear to have been paid more than $300,000 over two years.

The discovery compounds concerns that large sums of taxpayer funds supposed to pay for school and holiday clinics in south-western Sydney have instead been spent underwriting the club’s commercial operation and on expenses unrelated to the program.

A Herald investigation previously uncovered problems with the Football in Schools program, a $14.5 million commitment Labor made before the 2023 state election. In December, an external audit concluded Macarthur FC and Western Sydney Wanderers failed to comply with aspects of the funding deed.

The Herald previously revealed tens of thousands of dollars in donations were made to NSW Labor MPs by companies or organisations Macarthur FC chairman Gino Marra either directed or served on the board of, while other donations came from companies linked to the Bulls. A former Liberal Party donor, Marra became a generous contributor to the Labor cause in the lead-up to the 2023 state election.

There is no suggestion that these donations were improperly made.

Expenditure statements submitted by Macarthur FC for the 2024 and 2025 financial years – documents tabled in parliament that the Department of Education resisted releasing publicly – reveal the club recouped thousands of dollars from taxpayers for staff eating at restaurants and buying alcohol.

This included $850 across eight separate expenses at Outback Steakhouse, and $648 during visits to The Woollahra Hotel and the Narellan Hotel. Taxpayers were charged $1225 across seven visits to Crea, an Italian restaurant 88 metres from the club’s Oran Park office. In May 2024, the club billed taxpayers $94 for a visit to Moretti Ristorante in Leichhardt.

Macarthur also allocated 60 per cent of the “MFC Staff Xmas lunch” – valued at $257 – to taxpayers on December 21, 2023.

Two months earlier, a staff member apportioned 60 per cent of a $571 purchase at the Prince Wine Store in Zetland as “consumables”.

The funding deed signed by Macarthur FC states the club should “use the Funding only for the Activity and during the Activity Period”. A parliamentary committee was established in late June to interrogate the Football in Schools program. The first public hearing is scheduled for September.

The club’s response

After the Herald submitted questions to Macarthur FC and the law firm representing Marra and Macarthur chief executive Sam Krslovic a week ago, a club spokesperson requested additional time to respond, saying they were retrieving “the source records for each, invoices, approvals and the apportionment working behind them”.

The club had engaged a crisis communications agency, which issued a statement on behalf of Macarthur. The response did not address specific expenses but said, “the club has at all times acted honestly and in good faith”.

“Since late 2023 Macarthur FC has delivered the Football in Schools program across more than 130 schools and more than 380 free holiday clinics for families in south-west Sydney. Feedback from teachers and students has been overwhelmingly positive,” the statement said.

“The club is conducting a detailed review of all program expenses and continues to work closely with the department to ensure expenditure aligns with the funding deed. As that review is ongoing, we cannot comment further at this time.”

Minutes from a departmental meeting concerning the audit findings in December stated that Krslovic “acknowledged errors had been made and committed to improvements moving forward”.

A Department of Education spokesman said grant funding for this financial year would not be released until all compliance areas identified by auditors Grant Thornton were addressed and remediated. The club was first warned funds could be withheld in February.

“As part of the current audit process, the department has asked the organisation to provide additional information to support its expenditure claims within the next seven days,” he said. “The department has the right to withhold, or recover, any grants funding if compliance with the funding deed is not addressed.”

However, many of the questionable expenses are not flagged in publicly available audit reports.

How expenses were apportioned

The acquittal documents – a reporting process where the grant recipient verifies that external funds were spent according to the agreement – reveal Macarthur FC also claimed tens of thousands of dollars on costs that appear solely to do with the club’s operation.

This includes $3090 paid to a broadcaster who worked as the ground announcer for some of the club’s home games. The broadcaster did not respond to requests for comment.

Three separate payments of $4546 were made to the club’s former head physiotherapist in February, May and June 2024. The ex-employee’s LinkedIn states he left Macarthur in January of that year.

Macarthur claimed the club’s head coach Mile Sterjovski spent 100 hours on “coaching students feedback” in the 2024 financial year, apportioning $50,093 – or 15 per cent of his wage and expenses – to taxpayers.

The club also apportioned nearly $32,000 to “footballers appearances”, claiming 27 players spent 250 hours at clinics. A source with insight into Macarthur’s operation said community visits were an expectation for players, and they were not paid extra for these commitments.

A draft letter dated January 23 this year shows the department deemed “salary of any payments in relation to A-League players or games” as a non-eligible use of funding. The Herald has previously reported the club spent over $100,000 on uniforms for coaches. The department later told the club this was a non-eligible expense.

Asked whether the competition’s salary cap allowed for subsidisation of player wages by third parties, an A-League spokesman declined to comment.

The analysis of the expenditure statements also reveals Macarthur FC billed taxpayers for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work done by companies owned by the club’s executives and senior staff.

Pennytel Holdings, a proprietary company directed and partially owned by Marra, was apportioned $52,908 for “IT”. The Grant Thornton audit determined in December expenses such as IT, digital and media were “apportioned without clear justification or supporting rationale”.

Taxpayers were billed $148,941.54 for services provided by Titanium Waste Management. The stated purpose for several of these expenses – including a $40,682 payment in October 2023 – was “Rent for MFC Ltd offset to titanium waste sponsorship”. Marra and Krslovic are directors and have a financial interest in the company.

A mobile banking payment of $4400 made to The Fairfield Chase Centre in late January 2024 was apportioned in full through the grant program as “CEO”. Corporate records show Krslovic is the sole director and shareholder of a proprietary limited company with the same name.

An employee expense table shows the club allocated 10 per cent of Krslovic’s time as an “employee”, and another 10 per cent of his $388,500 salary as a “consultant”. In total, apportioning $62,638 of his salary to the program.

Macarthur claimed $128,469 for a company named Sportzology, with the larger payments classified as “HO Staff” or “School equipment”. The director and sole shareholder of the company is Bill Drossos, who has served as Macarthur’s head of partnerships since 2020.

Sportzology did not respond to requests for comment.

In response to an auditor query in November last year, Macarthur claimed a $8500 payment to Sportzology was for an individual “utilised for a full month in a full-time capacity with regard to sourcing the uniforms for the clinics together with providing each individual child with a T-Shirt”. The club also apportioned $42,468 for the salary of a “merchandising manager”.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.