Max Basheer, architect of South Australia’s AFL era, dies at 98

Max Basheer, a towering figure in South Australian football whose legal acumen and steady leadership helped shape two AFL clubs, has died in Adelaide at age 98, the SANFL said Monday.

Basheer, a Hall of Fame administrator and long-serving SANFL president, was central to the series of negotiations and court actions that converted South Australia’s football landscape into a two-club presence in the national competition. He is widely credited with blocking Port Adelaide’s 1990 fast-tracked bid to join the AFL, securing a SANFL-owned licence that led to the creation of the Adelaide Football Club and later overseeing conditions for Port Adelaide’s admission.

The immediate catalyst came in 1990, when Port Adelaide entered secret talks with the then-VFL — later the AFL — seeking a rapid, unilateral path to national competition. The bid blindsided SANFL clubs and prompted legal and political countermeasures led by Basheer. In a decisive meeting at the Southern Cross Hotel in September 1990, Basheer put $1 million on the table and promised further instalments to secure a SANFL-owned licence, persuading the national clubs to back a composite state side.

A week after Basheer’s intervention, AFL clubs voted 13–1 to award South Australia’s first national licence to the SANFL. The Adelaide Football Club was formally unveiled on Oct. 9, 1990, and debuted in the 1991 season under coach Graham Cornes. Basheer chaired the Crows’ interim board and steered the rapid launch of the club into the national league.

Port Adelaide regrouped after its blocked bid and was later awarded the second South Australian AFL sub-licence on Dec. 13, 1994. Basheer’s approach, supporters say, ensured both clubs entered the competition on more stable footing, with governance and financial conditions intended to protect the integrity of SANFL clubs and the state competition.

Beyond the licensing battles, Basheer presided over other consequential shifts in South Australian football. He led the move from the cricket-controlled Adelaide Oval to the purpose-built Football Park at West Lakes, a campaign that required prolonged political negotiation, financing arrangements and member diplomacy to give the SANFL control of a football-specific venue. He also pursued the expansion of night fixtures, a campaign that involved a judicial inquiry, a royal commission and ultimately a Supreme Court case that he later described as concluding six and a half years after it began.

Crows chairman John Olsen paid tribute to Basheer on Monday, saying, “The Adelaide Football Club would not exist if not for the determination, resilience and tireless work of Max Basheer. He was a visionary, a passionate South Australian and a man of integrity, who always had the best interests of football in this state at heart.”

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said Basheer was the primary figure in ensuring the off-field strength and financial stability of football in South Australia. “Max’s foremost priority was the health and strength of SA football, at all levels of the game,” Dillon said, noting Basheer’s more than six decades of service in leadership roles and his involvement in key developments such as football’s return to Adelaide Oval.

Port Adelaide released a statement praising Basheer’s lifelong contribution, noting his Order of Australia in 1988 and his induction into both the South Australian and Australian Football Halls of Fame. DBH Lawyers, where Basheer worked before retiring in 2019, described him as a “cornerstone” of the firm and a respected member of the legal profession.

Born May 9, 1927, to Lebanese immigrant parents, Basheer began his formal involvement with the SANFL in 1954 as the league’s honorary solicitor and as a tribunal commissioner. He remained a dominant administrative presence in South Australian football for more than half a century. His name endures at the Max Basheer Reserve near West Lakes and on a stand at Adelaide Oval.

Basheer was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988 and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as an administrator in 2005. He retired from legal practice at age 92 in 2019. Colleagues, club officials and administrators across the AFL said his death leaves a lasting legacy on the structure and stability of the game in South Australia.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced. The SANFL, Adelaide Football Club and other organisations paid tribute on Monday, noting Basheer’s long service and the pivotal role he played during some of the most turbulent and consequential decades in South Australian football.