The Melbourne Football Club has publicly admitted fault for for the wording of a job advertisement for a role in their Football Technology Pathway Program, perย Fox Footy.

The much chastised advertisement sought three to four people for unpaid roles between December 2020 to October 2021 with contact hours in excess of 10 hours per week.

โ€œAn exciting opportunity has become available for 3-4 individuals to volunteer within the club's football department for the 2021 season,โ€ the advertisement read.

โ€œReporting to the football analysis team, the successful individuals will contribute to a broad range of areas within all four of our teams in the AFL, VFL, AFLW and VFLW.

โ€œThis program would best suit students or graduates from either an exercise and sports science, information technology, statistical and multimedia background, who have a strong interest and understanding of AFL football.โ€

 

Having been brought to light on social media on Tuesday morning, the ad was rebuked widely across several platforms.

In response to this, club CEO Gary Pert sought to clarify the mechanics of the position.

โ€œThe scope and intent of the program was to keep the time frame flexible, to allow us to accommodate students at any month of the proposed period,โ€ Pert told Scott Gullan from the Herald Sun.

โ€œTo be clear, this pathway program does not run for a total of 11 months. Instead, the duration of the program is predicated on the student's individual course requirements and no student's hours will exceed the amount they need to complete their university unit.

โ€œThe club accepts that there were elements of the advertisement that were worded poorly and lacked clarity, and we will ensure this does not occur again.โ€