09 June,2011 12:45 PM IST | | AFP
A teenager who claimed she had sex and took drugs with a leading Australian Rules player agent in a scandal that rocked the sport admitted Thursday she made it all up.
The 17-year-old schoolgirl, Kim Duthie, changed her story in a statement to the AFL Players' Association (AFLPA), saying her claims regarding agent Ricky Nixon were "completely untrue".
Nixon, whose licence has been revoked, has always rejected her allegations despite a damning video of him in his underpants in her hotel room.
He denied pressuring the girl to retract her statement and vowed to sue the AFLPA.
"There's absolutely no deal between her and I whatsoever. Please, give me some respect," he told the Seven Network.
"If there was going to be any deal between her and I, it would have been done before I had to sell my business, before what it's done to my family, before what it's done to my life."
The AFLPA's Agent Accreditation Board suspended Nixon on March 24 for his "inappropriate personal relationship" with the teen, who was also at the centre of a nude photo scandal involving the St Kilda football club.
In that incident, she posted naked pictures of Australian Rules players on the Internet, saying it was an act of revenge after claiming she fell pregnant to a player but was poorly treated by the sport's bosses.
AFLPA's Agent Accreditation Board chairman Ian Prendergast confirmed the association had received correspondence "from a person involved in Mr. Nixon's case, claiming the person gave false evidence to the inquiry".
But he said that in making its decision to revoke Nixon's licence for two years, the board did not rely solely on the teenager's evidence.
"As such, the claims do not change the resolution made by the board in relation to the conduct of Ricky Nixon, which was found to be in breach of the Agent Accreditation Regulations," he said.
Nixon's company Flying Start used to represent 45 AFL players.
The scandal follows a series of sex and race controversies in Australian Rules, which is similar to Ireland's Gaelic football and based in Melbourne.