‘Not a drunken luncheon’: Fight over Melbourne Victory shares lands in court

A deal to buy out the shares of the former managing director of A-League club Melbourne Victory, allegedly brokered over a boozy, five-hour lunch, has landed in court.

Former Melbourne Victory managing director Richard Wilson is suing the club’s investor Joe Mirabella alleging the A-league business figure walked away from the deal struck at a seafood tavern in Fitzroy North.

Mirabella could be forced to fork out as much as $4 million if Wilson, who is suing through his private company, is successful in his case at the Victorian Supreme Court. Wilson made headlines in 2021 when he announced the sale of his stake to club members after growing disgruntled with the club’s direction, but the court heard he was only able to sell off 90,000 shares from his two million plus shareholding at $2.20 a share.

On the first day of the trial about the dispute on Monday, the court heard that Wilson believes Mirabella agreed to buy his then 16 per cent stake in the Melbourne team at a lunch at the RST Seafood Restaurant – also known as the Richmond Seafood Tavern – in North Fitzroy in June 2020.

The court heard the lunch was set up to discuss Wilson selling down his stake to Mirabella in the hope that the shares could then be used to give equity to a new investor, Ralph Battista.

Wilson alleges that Mirabella agreed to purchase his shares as a way of bringing in a new investor into the club, and the agreement was made on a handshake. However, Mirabella’s lawyers have argued that there was no formal agreement struck at the lunch and Wilson’s recollection of events was incorrect because he was intoxicated.

Lawyers for Wilson told the court on Monday that Mirabella’s legal team appeared to be alleging Wilson drank “all the alcohol”.

“They seem to put a lot of weight on whether Mr Wilson was intoxicated, whether this was some sort of drunken luncheon,” said Christopher Brown, counsel for Wilson. “There’s no evidence here of intoxication.”