AFLPA chief executive Brendon Gale says the AFL should consider capping the amount each club was able to spend on its football department if it wanted to further level the playing field for all 16 clubs.

Gale said he supports the national draft and salary cap systems the League currently has in place, but suggested that regulating clubs’ football department spend each season can ensure maximum “competitive balance” in Australia’s premier sporting competition.

“I think if we are serious about competitive balance, and given that there is a correlation between your spending power and your likelihood of success, I think we’ve got no choice but to look at it,” Gale told afl.com.au.

Gale noted the different ways leagues around the globe operated but said the AFL had an opportunity to go a step further in ensuring clubs started on an even footing.

“Now the top four-spending clubs in the AFL spend nearly $17 million a year on football operations,” he said.

“The bottom four clubs spend about $12 million. So I’ll go out on a limb and say I reckon that spend or lack of spend has a bit to do with whether a club can be competitive or not.

“In fact I’ll go more than that and say there is actually a demonstrable correlation … the AFL’s figures tell us.”

Gale said clubs’ football department spending was “going mad” which potentially gave some clubs a greater edge over some rivals.

Gale is part of an AFL working party which is trying to formulate a plan – on behalf of the AFLPA – to introduce free agency for players. If introduced, it will allow players a say in where they can play, something Gale says isn’t much to ask given the inequities in football department spending.

“At the moment it’s the players that bear the burden of competitive balance,” he said.

“Players are told how much they can earn, their salaries are capped, it’s not a free market, and players are told where they can work.

“So while there’s all these caps on players, the rest of the AFL environment is completely unregulated, and the spend on footy ops is just going mad.

“I do get a little frustrated for the players, and as a representative body, when the onus is ‘oh you’ll stuff this, you’ll stuff that’ [by bringing in free agency]. It’s like ‘hang on a minute, there’s other parts of the industry that need addressing’.”