CARLTON forward Brendan Fevola has been handed a $10,000 fine by the club and dumped from the leadership group after being caught on CCTV footage urinating outside a Prahran nightclub in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The incident is the latest in a long line of off-field indiscretions for the spearhead, with the club vowing to sack Fevola if there are any more alcohol-related incidents in 2008, the final year of his contract.

However, the sanction means Fevola is free to play in Thursday’s season-opening blockbuster against Richmond.

Carlton CEO Greg Swann said the club was naturally disappointed with Fevola’s actions and that it was clear the forward had an alcohol problem which needed urgent attention.

“Brendan has had an issue with alcohol, everything that’s happened to him thus far has been connected to alcohol and we are now seriously going to help him in that case by enrolling him in some education and welfare courses,” Swann told a packed media conference at MC Labour Park.

“We’ve also agreed with Brendan that if there are any more alcohol-related incidents, then that will result in him being terminated by the Carlton Football Club.

“We want to support him, but we also want to say that we can’t keep accepting this, so that’s the stance we’ve taken.”

Swann said the club liaised with psychologists, the AFL and the AFLPA in coming up with the decision, and defended the leniency of the outcome by saying the club and the leadership group did not want to ostracise the five-time club leading goal-kicker by imposing a suspension.

“One of the reasons we went down this path is that over the journey, we’ve suspended Brendan, we’ve fined Brendan, but we haven’t addressed the actual issue, and the leadership group were very big on this,” Swann said.

“In effect, we’ve got a carrot for Brendan in helping him in deal with the issues that have caused him problems and there’s also a stick there in that if it happens again, he won’t be at Carlton.”

Fevola has now committed to abstaining from alcohol for the rest of the year.

The club acknowledged the move as an important step in curbing the problem.

“Unfortunately, when he gets out and it’s late at night, and he’s had too much alcohol, problems happen,” Swann said.

“Brendan, to his credit, has said he wants help and that he needs to get past this, not only just for his football, because it’s a problem for him outside of football.

“We want to take steps to fix that.”

Swann admitted the club would rather have spent the time elsewhere, such as working with their young talent, ahead of the season proper.

“It’s the last thing you want to be doing at this stage of the season,” Swann said.

“From the young blokes point of view it’s not a good situation to be in, but we just feel we’ve got a duty of care to Brendan.”