Football entity gets $267k funding despite dissolution

A football entity associated with NZ’s top club never filed annual accounts and still received funding despite its dissolution. By

Auckland-based pokie grant organisation Trillian Trust gave $213,000 to a football entity associated with high-flying football club Auckland City FC after the entity was dissolved.

Trillian Trust has funded the Super City Youth Academy since it was established in April 2017, but the academy never filed accounts in four years and was dissolved in June last year by the Companies Office.

After the dissolution, Trillian continued to fund the defunct organisation to the tune of $213,000 for the next 14 months until the discrepancy was highlighted by a

investigation. The Ministry of Social Development also provided Super City YA with a $54,412 wage subsidy in August 2021, two months after the organisation was dissolved.

Super City YA was set up to help junior and youth football at Auckland City FC and Central United, clubs which use the same home ground and clubrooms and have many members in common.

Auckland City FC chairman Ivan Vuksich is or was involved in all three entities as was chartered accountant George Franich.

Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs is already investigating Trillian over a complaint of lack of transparency and is expected to report results in a few months.

The apparent mistake and the revelation Auckland City FC and Central United have a less than obvious entity through which they received additional funding will provide more ammunition to critics who say the clubs are really one club to which Trillian is extraordinarily generous.

Auckland City FC has also failed to shake off allegations its first team players are professional footballers who should not be playing in an amateur competition.

For the 10 months ending July 31, 2021, Trillian gave Super City YA, Auckland City FC and Central United $1,150,615, about 13% of the $8,886,811 it contributed to amateur sport, education and numerous community organisations in that period.

Super City YA has called the mistake an administrative error and Trillian chief executive Dean Agnew says Trillian will stop funding Super City until matters have been sorted out.

‘‘Your query has brought to our attention that there was a glitch in the setting up of our new database. Following your query we identified the cause and have now corrected this.

‘‘We are currently in the process of reviewing the status of all approved applications for this time period to ensure they are compliant.’’

He said Trillian treated Auckland City FC, Central United and Super City YA as separate entities. He did not respond to a question about why Trillian funded the sister organisations so generously.

The also raised other issues with Agnew including that Agnew and fellow Trillian directors John Harpin and Stanley Malcolm own a company called

Bassant Professional Services, which owns the building in Penrose that Trillian rents for $88,000 a year as its headquarters. Trillian also pays property upkeep expenses, which in the year to end of July 2021, were about $41,000.

Bassant bought the property in April 2008, and it has a current registered valuation of $2.2m.

Agnew said his company purchased the building to give Trillian a stable home after the organisation had been forced to move premises three times in a short period.