If there is one exchange that sums up the relationship between the Australian Olympic Committee and a little-known company that has long controlled the rights to sell and market the Olympic brand in Australia, it comes in a leaked email from AOC president John Coates.
Asked by a staffer last February if his right-hand man Mike Tancred would be comfortable with "dollar values" of an advertising package being provided to vitamins giant Swisse, Mr Coates' reply was blunt.
"Do not let this get in the way of a deal – it's chicken shit," he wrote. "And do not worry about Mike T [Tancred] being happy. If I'm happy, he's happy."
Welcome to the world of the AOC, where the buck always stops with John Coates.
The email also provides a glimpse into the world of AOC sponsorships.
Since 1986, a company called Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) has held the exclusive rights to market the Olympic brand in Australia. SMAM morphed into Lagardere in 2012, but if you are a corporation that wants to use the Olympic rings, you have no choice but to deal with the AOC's exclusive agent.
Over the years, SMAM has earned tens of millions of dollars, taking a cut of every Olympic sponsorship deal for the past 30 years.
According to the AOC's budget for the 1992 to 1996 "quadrennial" – the four years between Olympiads – the AOC spent $7.8 million "marketing and fundraising costs". Of that, more than half ($4.2 million), was set aside for "commissions to Sports Marketing and Management". It earned a further $14.6 million from the AOC in the eight years from 2008 to 2016.
The relationship between SMAM and the AOC has rarely been reviewed. Now a challenge to Coates for AOC presidency by former Hockeyroo Danni Roche has shone a spotlight on the AOC's dealings. Ms Roche has called for a line-by-line audit of the AOC, and says she believes Australia's athletes and sporting bodies should get a greater share of the AOC's revenue.
Documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal that Mr Coates was a founding director and company secretary of SMAM back in 1986, the year after he became vice president of the AOC. He was appointed alongside his friends and associates Phil Coles and Geoff Henke.
Immediately after Mr Coates was appointed to the board of SMAM, it was granted the exclusive rights to negotiate sponsorship deals on behalf of the AOC. Mr Coates remained a SMAM director until 1989, just months before he assumed the AOC presidency.
SMAM's daily operations were initially overseen by former television executive Wilf Barker, and then by current CEO Mike Bushell.
One thing all those men had in common was membership of a secretive lunch group called Club 13, along with Mr Coates. That group has met monthly for decades. According to an AFR investigation in 1998, eight members of that club have, over the years, "been involved in Olympic business or benefited from Olympic contacts while developing and maintaining a strong personal relationship with Coates".
When Fairfax Media queried Coates's relationship with SMAM over the years, he called from the lunch table at Lindsay Fox's birthday celebrations, which were held in the trucking magnate's garage.
Mr Coates insists he never has never held a financial interest in SMAM. "I was only ever an honorary director, put in to look after the AOC's interests," Mr Coates told Fairfax Media. "It [SMAM] was a joint venture to benefit the AOC. I have never held in financial or pecuniary interest in the company."
A number of former AOC staff have told Fairfax Media that Lagardere, which now has SMAM's exclusive AOC rights, gets a 15 percent commission on all cash sponsorships of the AOC and a further 8 per cent payment of any "in kind" deals, such as the value of cars or advertising space. It is then up to the AOC to execute the deals.
Mr Coates said the commission figures for Lagardere provided to Fairfax Media were not "entirely correct", but admitted the average commission paid was "about 12 per cent".
"I think it's a very good deal, and if you look at what companies such as Gemba take, it's about 25 per cent," he said.
SMAM was purchased by French sponsorship giant Lagardere Sports in 2012 for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be close to $25 million.
Company searches reveal a web of complex and intertwined shareholdings in Australia, the United Kingdom and the British Virgin Islands, many through nominee companies that do not disclose the ultimate owner.
Just who stood to benefit from some of those overseas shareholdings may never be known.
The sale had to be approved by the AOC, which then extended Lagardere's exclusive rights from 2020 until the 2032 Olympics. By the time that event comes around, it will have enjoyed a 46-year monopoly of the marketing the Australian Olympic team.
At the time of the sale, Mr Coates claimed SMAM was "100 per cent owned" by Michael Bushell, one of his close friends, who joined SMAM in 1999. He revised that statement when contacted by Fairfax Media on Friday.
"To be honest, I don't know who every single share is owned by, but as far as I am concerned it is Bushell's company" Mr Coates said. "From my memory, it was Barker's company and he sold it to Bushell when he was getting older," Mr Coates said.
Asked why SMAM had been given an exclusive contract, and why it had never been put out to tender, Mr Coates pointed to a 2009 review of the deal. "The report came back and said we shouldn't have a competitive tender process," Mr Coates said.
Asked why the AOC had given Lagardere a further 12-year extension of its rights until 2032, Mr Coates said it was a "good deal" that "included targets for Lagardere that mean we can get out of the deal if they don't hit those targets."