The EJ Whitten Foundation, which hosts the popular AFL-backed Legends Game, has been dragged to court by its former chief executive who claims the charity sacked him without warning.
Barry Besanko took the $150,000-a-year CEO job in September 2015 amid turmoil over how much money raised by the EJ Whitten Foundation was being spent on prostate cancer research and education.
![Damian Monkhorst of Victoria fends off a tackle by Andrew Embley during the 2015 EJ Whitten Legends Game.](/web/20170305105312im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/i/2/6/5/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guq2n7.png/1488624407362.jpg)
Mr Besanko says in a statement of claim filled in Federal Circuit Court that he secured the deal for Channel Seven to broadcast and underwrite the 2016 Legends Game, one of football's highest-rating events, ending a 20-year relationship with the Nine Network.
The event, which pits retired Victorian AFL players and celebrities against an interstate All Stars team, had been under a cloud following a dispute with its for-profit operator Baker Smith Management, following revelations Baker Smith was raising over a $1 million a year from the games but only returning about a tenth of that to the foundation.
The EJ Whitten Foundation parted ways with Baker Smith in December 2015 and Mr Besanko says the 2016 Legends match at Etihad Stadium raised about $500,000.
Mr Besanko, a former Essendon wingman, claims also he secured $1.1 million in funding from the Victorian government for cancer research and a men's health education program.
But on December 14 Mr Besanko was taken into a meeting with the foundation's chairman Peter Burnett and director John Ballenger and fired on the spot, court documents allege.
His lawyer Mark Featherby said Mr Besanko was told he was being sacked because he had "not reached the necessary KPIs [key performance indicators]".
"He invited them to explain what that meant and to give him an explanation of how they came to that conclusion and they refused," Mr Featherby told Fairfax Media.
"They just said no, you're terminated."
The former Bomber is seeking $76,168 in damages from lost wages and superannuation because he was not given a reasonable notice period of six months to find another job.
Mr Besanko says the foundation did not provide a work vehicle as had been agreed. He instead drove his own car during his one-year and three-month tenure and will sue the charity over the depreciation in value to his 2002 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen.
Chairman Peter Burnett said the foundation would not comment on the case while it was before the court.
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said the league would again support the Legends Match in 2017 and that the dispute with Mr Besanko was a matter for the foundation.
The foundation – started in memory of Footscray legend EJ "Ted" Whitten, who died from prostate cancer in 1995 – boasts a number of corporate heavyweights on its board.
Mr Burnett is Victorian president of the Australian Hotels Association, chairman of the Australasian Gaming Council and a former Tourism Australia director. Others include David Elia, chief executive of the $20 billion hospitality superannuation fund HOSTPLUS, and John Ballenger, head of marketing at Energy Australia.
The EJ Whitten Foundation raised $1.3 million in the 2015/16 financial year from ticket sales ($313,500), donations ($356,757), auctions ($228,804) and government funding ($250,000), accounts lodged with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission show.
Expenses ran at $1.1 million, including just over $300,000 to remunerate its four employees and $252,000 to run an education campaign. The charity ended the year $125,883 in the black.