FORMER Carlton assistant coach Tony Liberatore will talk to the AFL next week about his suspicions that Carlton "tanked" late last season.
Earlier on Friday AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said he expected Liberatore to drop by league headquarters and register his suspicions with those who mattered most.
In an interview on Thursday night’s The Footy Show, Liberatore made explosive claims that he believed the Blues weren’t doing all in their power to win their final matches of 2007.
Carlton officials have strongly denied the claims.
Demetriou, who is yet to see the interview but read stories in Friday’s newspapers, said Liberatore would have to come forward before any action might be taken from league headquarters.
“What I would say is that if Tony Liberatore has got a specific allegation then we will invite Tony in here,” he said.
“By all means, if Tony wants to put forward that specific allegation to our football operations department he’s absolutely invited.
“If he put a specific allegation to us about the Carlton Football Club, then we would go and speak to the Carlton Football Club and look into it.”
Demetriou said he was pleased to receive a call from Blues chief executive Greg Swann at about 7.30am on Friday, indicating that Carlton officials were meeting the issue head-on.
When pressed on whether it was the AFL’s duty to be pro-active on the issue – especially in light of the recent Paul Roos investigation – Demetriou said this was a different set of circumstances.
“He’s not an AFL person under our rules now, so we can’t compel him to come in,” he said.
“But the invitation’s there and I couldn’t imagine why Tony wouldn’t accept the invitation to come in and put a specific allegation to us, given that he’s done it on The Footy Show.
“It seems reasonable for us to expect that he will come forward and make that specific allegation. I would have thought that’s not an unreasonable position for us to think.”
Earlier in the day, Swann told a packed media conference at MC Labour Park that he didn’t think an investigation would be necessary.
He said Liberatore wasn’t welcome back at the Blues and hasn’t ruled out taking legal action.
