Fox Footy broadcaster Gerard Whateley believes Nick Foot should step aside from his racing analyst role with a sports betting agency – “even if it feels desperately unfair” – to remain an AFL umpire.
Foot has endured three days of intense scrutiny after reporting Port Adelaide star Zak Butters for verbally abusing an official during the Power’s loss to St Kilda on Sunday night.
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The report led to a lengthy tribunal case on Tuesday night, with Butters found guilting for copping a $1500 fine having allegedly asked Foot “how much are they paying you?” after a contentious free kick was awarded to St Kilda. Foot took that as a suggestion he was being paid by the Saints and a shot at his integrity.
Butters insisted, both post-game on Sunday and under cross-examination on Tuesday night he’d said “surely that’s not a free kick”, with his case backed up by nearby teammate Ollie Wines.
As well as being an AFL umpire, Foot holds a separate role as a horseracing analyst with Sportsbet.
Foot during the tribunal denied he was subconsciously focused on his outside employment with Sportsbet, insisting he was “picking up on the word ‘pay’ in a way that is different to the words in fact used”.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, Whateley said Foot’s racing role was no longer feasible.
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“Nick Foot should remove himself from the sports betting agency that he’s associated with,” Whateley told AFL 360. “He shouldn’t be paid by that agency from here going forth because he’s an important figure in the game. He’s already a Grand Final umpire.
“He had to answer questions today under cross-examination of whether his integrity and whether that employment was clouding the view around his umpiring and he conceded that conversation is happening at the moment. That is both unfair on him and something that he’s in control of.
“Step away from that until you’re finished as an AFL umpire because his status in the game is vital as a Grand Final umpire.”
Co-host Garry Lyon re-emphasised Foot’s role has “clearly got nothing to do with football gambling, it is absolutely 200 per cent in the horse racing industry”.
Lyon added there was “a lot of cheques being taken from betting agencies across the world of football”.
But Whateley replied: “There is, but you can’t take that cheque. Not with the integrity that has played out through this. He’s the unfortunate victim of that, but he’s in control of that himself.
“Just step away from it, just remove it as a possibility. I just think an umpire on his own self-reflection now should go ‘I’ll do that later on’ … even if it feels desperately unfair.”
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Midweek Tackle host Lauren Wood in February last year broke the story on CODE Sports the AFL was comfortable with Foot’s racing content role with Sportsbet after the umpire sought AFL approval.
“We were howled down at the time (of the story),” Wood told Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle on Tuesday night. “It was essentially around the AFL ticking it off, so not necessarily that Nick held this role while concurrently holding a role as an official field umpire. The AFL were really staunch in their view that they backed him in to do this racing-only role.
“I think the concern at the time – and it’s come to the fore now – is you tick that role off at the time, that’s up to them and they have to live with that call. But it was always going to leave them exposed that something like this could rear its head.
“It results in 36 hours of social media agony for someone like Nick Foot, links are drawn that may not necessarily be there and questions are raised that wouldn’t be raised if it wasn’t this scenario where if they weren’t working at a sports betting agency.”
Wood reported there was no answer yet on whether the AFL would revisit its stance on Foot’s racing-related employment contract.
But she added: “It does raise questions. If they had gone in Zak Butters’ favour, I think that would’ve drawn more questions about it also.
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“To make it really clear, there’s no insinuation there is a link between the two (umpiring and Foot’s racing role) … but if just feels like it adds an extra layer to this story in particular that didn’t necessarily need to be there.”
Fellow CODE Sports reporter Jon Ralph said the approval was “always going to backfire” on league headquarters.
“The AFL had to think: ‘What’s the worst possible thing that could happen?’ He (Foot) is 37, he’s got 15 years or umpiring as an AFL Grand Final umpire,” Ralph told Midweek Tackle.
“They had to know at some stage this kind of thing would come up – not this specific situation, but him being called to give evidence in a contentious case – and so at that stage it was always going to backfire on them.”