Liam Pickering

Can’t post it from my phone but has anybody else read the HS article on Pickering today?


If even half of it is true, it’s disgusting, he should loose his agent accreditation from the AFL over it.

Liam Pickering being sued over allegations of impropriety during time as player manager
MARK ROBINSON
HERALD SUN
NOVEMBER 14, 2014 8:00PM

 

JASON Sourasis bounded into player management because he wanted to help his best mate, North Melbourne defender Michael Firrito.
As owner of the successful Strategic Financial Services Group, Sourasis was a financial adviser to 15 AFL players, including Firrito, and wanted to help Firrito in his transition from professional footballer to former professional footballer.
He liked the role as quasi player manager so much, and believed in what he could offer, that he expanded his business and Strategic Management AFL (SMAFL) was set up.
His first move was to talk to people in the know.
He sought advice from leading current and former player managers — Liam Pickering, Tom Petroro, Anthony McConville, Peter Jess and Ricky Nixon — the latter he described as a brilliant player contract manager.
He also liked Pickering. Pickering had the biggest stable of talent and he wanted Pickering as a business partner in SMAFL.

After 12 months of talks, during a period Pickering was serving a non-compete clause after quitting International Management Group, Pickering officially joined SMAFL in September, 2012.
Clearly, Sourasis liked what he understood of Pickering‘s style.
He says he agreed to pay Pickering $200,000 upfront and $200,000 a year for the next two years and gave him 40 per cent equity in SMAFL.
From there, however, it went downhill quickly.
In May this year - just 20 months after joining SMAFL - Pickering quit and Friday week ago, Sourasis launched Supreme Court action against Pickering, claiming losses and damages of $2.5 million, caused by Pickering diverting income to his own interests.
Sourasis‘s ambition to become a major player in the AFL player management game had crashed and he lays the blame at Pickering, the AFL‘s highest-profile and go-getter player manager.
Before Sourasis headed to the Supreme Court, Pickering launched legal action against Sourasis, which included a series of affidavits Sourasis says are laughable. Pickering asked the court to appoint a liquidator to investigate Strategic Management‘s affairs and to investigate its financial statements in a bid to close down the company to prevent it from issuing proceedings against him.
“It was a joke ... he‘s not suing us, he is being sued.” Sourasis said. “His affidavit is contradicted by the evidence we have. One example is where Liam swears that I promised him 50 per cent equity, yet there‘s a document he signed and numerous emails/text messages where Liam states he‘s only a 40 per cent shareholder.”
Of course, failed business dealings are often complicated.
What started as an offer of help to a mate is now a matter listed for hearing in the Supreme Court in December.
And it started so promisingly.

After Pickering left IMG, that company eventually closed its AFL division, which meant most of the IMG talent went to Strategic.
At Strategic, the players were officially managed by James Pitcher, who was, coincidentally, a former colleague of Pickering‘s at IMG.
IMG‘s move to shut down its AFL arm meant all commissions for player contracts and marketing for some of the game‘s biggest names — Gary Ablett, Lance Franklin and Collingwood champions Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan — were now under the umbrella of Strategic.
Sourasis couldn‘t have been more delighted.
Money was coming in on the back of his investment and recruitment of Pickering. Other players and coaches now managed by SMAFL included Matthew Boyd, Troy Chaplin, Paul Chapman, John Longmire, Mark Neeld, James Kelly and Jack Riewoldt.
Sourasis is not sure when it began to go pear-shaped, but he claims by midway through 2013 Pickering had shut him out of the business and, more to the point, that moneys owed to Strategic via contract and marketing commissions were being diverted away from the company by Pickering.

In his Supreme Court writ, Sourasis claims Pickering denied him “any access or involvement in the management of SMAFL” and that on July 2, 2013, Pickering sent him a letter which read: “Given my expertise I would run this business without your day-to-day involvement = you would in effect be a ‘silent partner‘.”
Sourasis claims Pickering did not attend directors‘ meetings, refused to use an office computer and use the company email address provided for him and was evasive on email and by text.
He claims deals done by Pickering and Pitcher weren‘t completed to the point to satisfy AFL Players‘ Association regulations, because player agent agreements were never signed — and that made it easier for Pickering to entice players away from SMAFL.
Soon after, Pickering and Pitcher started their new company, Precision Sports and Entertainment Group, the new company invoiced the likes of Adidas for commissions owed to SMAFL as a result of the Franklin deal, and AFL Queensland for “services” related to Ablett.
Pendlebury, who would leave Pickering and stay with SMAFL, is another player understood to be curious about being paid by Precision for marketing work when he was no longer tied to the company.
Sourasis, whose family wealth is estimated at more than $20 million, said he had no alternative but to pursue Supreme Court action.

“Liam Pickering has not put one cent into this business,” Sourasis told the Herald Sun.
“I significantly increased his base salary, funded the whole thing, got him to join our business and, as soon as the business went better than we hoped, which we both should be happy about because we are both shareholders, he decided, ‘No, I‘m doing this by myself‘.
“He wouldn‘t come to meetings, not return emails or texts ... and then he set up his new company in competition with us while he worked and was a director of our company.
“I think it‘s ethically wrong.
“I‘m going Liam with every dollar I‘ve got, based on principle and his lack of respect or care for his obligations and the law. That‘s what it comes down to.
“I was happy to say to Liam, ‘Hey, let‘s go our separate ways, but let us work out what the business is worth, you buy me out or I buy you out, but not try to rip out the heart of the business and undermine the company for 12 months‘.
“I don‘t want to sit here and throw mud at Liam, and I could, but this company went from $70,000 revenue a month 12 months ago to $7000 a month now because of Liam and James‘ actions, and that‘s why we have been forced to take this action.‘‘

Sourasis cited Franklin‘s $10 million deal with Sydney in October, 2013, as an example of him being isolated by Pickering.
The Supreme Court writ says: “At no time before or after September 30, 2013, has Pickering ... informed Sourasis of any services — including negotiations, offers, agreements, terms, payments, commissions, sponsorships, or otherwise — of the Franklin deal.”
Sourasis said: “It‘s reported Buddy‘s on $10 million. What‘s four per cent of $10 million? It‘s $400,000 and Liam did that deal in September 2013 and resigned May 1, 2014. That money should be paid to Strategic Management AFL Pty Ltd. He was a director and employee of the company when he completed that deal on behalf of Strategic.‘‘
The writ said player representation agreements, including Franklin‘s, were not lodged with the AFL within the specified 14 days — for the past 12 months barely any were lodged by Pickering and Pitcher — a matter Sourasis has discussed with AFLPA chief executive Ian Prendergast.
Sourasis said there were countless deals done where papers were not lodged, and says player documents had disappeared from Strategic offices.
Sourasis‘s writ says he was furious upon learning Precision Sports and Entertainment Group was set up while both Pickering and Pitcher worked at Strategic.
“We‘ve got a lot of evidence that says these two have been working on this for 12 months, to go and set themselves up in a new business,” Sourasis said.
“They set up the company a month before they resigned.
“If Liam is a director of a business, he has a fudiciary duty to the company and its shareholders.”
Pickering has continually not returned Herald Sun phone calls.
Meanwhile, Sourasis, a former player at Coburg in the VFL and North Old Boys in the Amateurs, says he is keen to continue in player management and his new model will be based around players and their feedback.
“The model we are working on has been built using the input of players and is a model that benefits the players more than the agents,” he said.
“This whole episode has made me more determined to make it work and do it properly.”

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/liam-pickering-being-sued-over-allegations-of-impropriety-during-time-as-player-manager/story-fnp04d70-1227123387958

Scum.

Gets the deal done.

Show me the money. 

Whatever it takes

Suck ■■■■ you Prick.

slick pickers

Pickers.

piam lickering

pickers-y

Quam 

Sounds very ordinary.

 

Is it true? Well, it comes from a leading AFL communications specialist so... God knows!

BEST IN THE BUSINESS

"Tell 'em Pickers sent ya"

 

-Pickers

is a massive flog

Apparently Robinson and this Sourasis guy are quite good friends. Which makes me just a tad suspicious about this article. Equally, Pickering isn't nearly as awesome as he thinks he is.

 

Kill them both I say.

Governance? 

Come contract time, L Pickering takes care of business.

if he's not suckin jars at college on a sunday arvo.