Embattled football club ‘lacked capacity’ to manage $8m school clinics: report

October 31, 2026 — 5:00am

NSW Labor referred a lobbyist to the state’s corruption watchdog after he allegedly asked a senior party official for information about a parliamentary committee on behalf of Macarthur FC chairman Gino Marra.

Richard Lenarduzzi, the founder of Premier Communications Group, was referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on about August 20 after he approached Labor assistant secretary David Dobson seeking assistance about a NSW parliamentary committee examining the Football in Schools program.

It is the latest revelation to emerge from the Minns government’s embattled $14.5 million Football in Schools program. A report released by the parliamentary committee on Thursday found Macarthur FC provided “unreliable evidence” and “lacked the capacity” to manage the $8 million it was awarded by Labor over four years to run school football clinics.

The committee determined that providing millions of dollars of taxpayer funding to Macarthur and the Western Sydney Wanderers for the program after accepting their donations has “the appearance of favours in return for government funding”. Both clubs denied any quid pro quo.

According to sources, who spoke anonymously to detail confidential matters, Dobson declined to assist Lenarduzzi, who allegedly said he was working on behalf of Marra, who is one of the Macarthur Bulls owners.

The Labor official made a file note of what party headquarters considered an inappropriate interaction and referred the matter to the ICAC.

Lenarduzzi and Dobson declined to comment. Macarthur FC and Marra did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

An ICAC spokeswoman said the agency did not comment on matters referred to it.

Two weeks after Sussex Street’s referral, Labor HQ was contacted by ICAC’s assessment panel seeking additional information about Lenarduzzi’s approach, asking if he disclosed that he was a third-party lobbyist, and the stated reason for his request.

Lenarduzzi founded Premier Communications Group in 2009, after working for former NSW frontbencher John Hatzistergos during the former Labor government. Hatzistergos is the ICAC’s chief commissioner.

Premier Communications Group’s LinkedIn profile states:“We raise the awareness, reputation and integrity of our clients through the use of integrated communications campaigns.”

Macarthur FC’s use of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds has faced considerable public scrutiny since an investigation by the Herald in March revealed that Marra was linked to tens of thousands of dollars in contributions through various companies to south-west Sydney Labor MPs.

The reporting prompted Labor to refer itself to the Electoral Commission over discrepancies between donor returns lodged by its MPs and those made by companies linked to Marra. A number of the donations were referred because of the possibility that Marra could be defined as a property developer under NSW electoral laws.

In early September, Hugo Bergeron, the executive director of safeguards and integrity at the NSW Electoral Commission, told the parliamentary inquiry the investigation was still examining a “small number of donations”, attributing the six-month process to the complexity of the matter.

“There are some donations that have been looked at and finalised. There are still a small number of donations that are currently being investigated,” Bergeron said.

On October 22, NSW Labor general secretary Dominic Ofner emailed the committee saying the electoral commission had still not provided the party with advice about the outcome of the investigation into the donations.

“I will advise the committee should that change,” he wrote.

A party source said that the absence of communication from the Electoral Commission did not necessarily mean that any breaches of the act had been identified.

Expenditure statements demonstrated that Macarthur used hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to pay companies owned or directed by the club’s executives and senior staff, along with offsetting more than $80,000 worth of player and head coach wages. Staff also spent thousands of dollars on wine, pubs and restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse.

The Football in Schools program was audited by Grant Thornton last year. After Macarthur FC failed to provide adequate answers to questions about its spending, the Department of Education paused the club’s funding and commissioned McGrathNicol to undertake a forensic audit.

Nationals MP Wes Fang, the inquiry’s chair, said committee members were “particularly troubled” by the club’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for problems with the Football in Schools program.

The committee endorsed Ofner’s position that MPs or candidates should not take donations from local community groups, including sporting clubs, or their charitable arms.

Ofner has warned MPs and candidates against taking donations from these groups ahead of the 2027 March election.

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