A bitter spat between the AFL and the Sydney Swans has gone public, with former Swans president Richard Colless accusing the league of trying to use sponsorship money outside the salary cap to get Lance Franklin to Greater Western Sydney.

Ultimately, Franklin signed for the Sydney Swans, however Mr Colless said “the AFL broke at least three of its rules in relation” to its bid to make Franklin a Giant.

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Colless congratulates Adam Goodes after breaking the club’s games record in 2012 Photo: Getty

“It dealt consistently with the player outside the prescribed area,” Mr Colless told News Corp.

“You had that window and then it closed. You [AFL] kept dealing with the player or manager during that period.

“Secondly, you were in a position to top up the amount of money that was coming from the club through a third-party arrangement, and that was merely you transferring funds from one of your sponsors to GWS or to Franklin.

“And the third was that you would allow GWS to trade with Hawthorn and I think that was designed to make it easier for Hawthorn to get some young players, which again is illegal.”

The remarkable report also claims AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick abused Mr Colless in a phone call after Lance Franklin’s shock defection to the Swans in October 2013. 

“There was no warm up, no introduction — the opening pleasantries were the ‘F’ bomb and the ‘C’ bomb,” Colless said of the Fitzpatrick phone call.

“I must admit I was taken aback. It went on for about 10 minutes and it was basically just a torrent of abuse.

“I was at home when the phone rang. Mike’s number came up and my wife just happened to be standing where the phone was. I didn’t put it on loud speaker, so she didn’t hear every word of it, but she got the thrust of it pretty well.

Colless says he thinks Fitzpatrick acted like a “Mafia Don” in the Buddy to Sydney fallout. Photo: Getty

“It got to a point where he said to me, and I’m paraphrasing: ‘If any of this gets out to the press – this conversation – I’ll know where it came from and you watch out’. To which I think I said: ‘Mike – get f…..’

“I said, ‘Mike you are the chairman of the AFL, which rightly or wrongly is regarded as the leading sports governing body in Australia, and you’re acting like you’re a Mafia Don.’

“I think he is singularly inappropriate to be running the AFL – and the debate that is raging now about the AFL’s leadership with the Adam Goodes thing is a classic example.”

Speaking on Triple M Radio in response to the story, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said Mr Colless seems to be: “accusing the AFL of cheating the salary cap” and “using the money of the other 17 clubs” to get Franklin to GWS.

Mr Colless, who was the longest serving Swans’ president, is no longer in the role.

The relationship between Sydney and the league has been tense ever since the Swans’ were banned for two years of trading over how the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) allowed them to get Franklin on a ten-year deal.

It’s believed to have soured further after the Swans’ deemed the AFL’s response to the Adam Goodes booing controversy as not good enough.

Mr Fitzpatrick only commented on Tuesday about on the saga. The AFL are yet to respond to News Corp’s request for comment.

The 17 club CEO’s and the AFL are meeting today for prescheduled talks, says Mr McGuire.