Football Queensland’s members’ fees only went up a few dollars, but they weren’t told where the money was going

The first thing Murray Bird saw in the budget meeting was the new boss’s salary and he was “horrified”.

Former politician Robert Cavallucci was hired on nearly double the pay of the last chief executive at Football Queensland (FQ) — almost $320,000 a year.

“No-one else that I know of involved in Queensland community sport is receiving that sort of money,” Mr Bird says.

The CEO was recruited via a two-month consultancy that earned the president of the board Ben Richardson $44,000.

When Mr Bird, the general manager of operations, found out weeks later about the discreet consultancy payment, he says he felt sick that Mr Richardson’s own board had approved his handsome fee.

“I felt duped because … here was a person who was purporting to be…