Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Aussie Rule AFL chairman defends executives salaries

Updated at 6:09 am on 18 March 2010

The Australian Rules AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick says chief executive Andrew Demetriou deserves the $2.3 million he earned last year after delivering some major gains for the sport.

Demetriou's salary - including superannuation and performance bonuses - was made public as part of a report into the league's key achievements over the past year.

The other 10 members of the AFL executive made a total of $6.5 million.

Fitzpatrick says they guided the game through a difficult financial period in which they were able to deliver a record revenue figure of $393 million, up $1.8 million from 2008.

The AFL had an operating surplus of $274 million for 2009, of which $175 million was distributed to the AFL clubs.

They also broke records for the membership of AFL clubs, which totalled 586,748, for participation in the sport (732,803) and in the kids football program Auskick (169,000).

The league says the 3.848 million people who watched last year's grand final between Geelong and St Kilda also made it the year's most watched television program in Australia.

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