The AFL has announced that the league will be issuing lifetime bans for any person found responsible for vilification within the sport.
The league has been dealing with a spate of reports of vilification throughout the 2023 season, both on social media and at AFL games, with nine lifetime bans being issued this year alone.
A full-time employee at AFL house will also be dedicated to investigating racism and vilification cases at both AFL and community level as part of the AFL integrity unit.
In a league statement released on Saturday, AFL Executive General Manager Inclusion and Social Policy Tanya Hosch said that the league would continue working until they stamped out vilification at all levels.
โWe have been clear, there is absolutely no place for this behaviour in our sport and in society in general and we want people to know that if they behave in this way, they are not welcome at the footy again,โ Hosch said.
โThe work will not stop in this space and having a full-time resource committed to investigating incidents is going to assist greatly in our response at all levels of the game.
โIt can be very difficult to find these people but on numerous occasions our Integrity officers have identified perpetrators and passed information to the police,โ she said.
โThere is more work to be done, especially in the online space and we will continue to work with Australia's eSafety Commissioner to put in place preventative strategies for online abuse, remove abusive posts and act against perpetrators.
โWe know we still have more we can do to combat racism in the game but will continue to lobby the platforms for increased protections and penalties while building on these current actions to help promote change in our industry and society in general."
The league confirmed that those handed a lifetime ban will be able to appeal for a review after a minimum of five years.
