Australian Olympic rugby and football teams investigated after ‘unacceptable’ and ‘rowdy’ behaviour on flight home

AUSTRALIA’S Olympic rugby, football and rowing teams have been slammed for their post-Games behaviour – after trashing rooms and wreaking havoc on their flight home.

The Aussies’ football and rugby squads drew complaints for their ‘rowdy’ and ‘unacceptable’ actions on their flight home.

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A number of Australian teams within their Olympic group have been criticised for damaging rooms and behaving poorly on their flight home[/caption]

And the rugby team joined the Australian rowers in being criticised for damaging their rooms in the Tokyo Olympic village after leaving ‘holes’ in the walls.

The nations’ football and rugby sevens teams are now being investigated over undisclosed incidents during their near-ten-hour flight into Sydney on Friday.

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll said: “While there has been no formal complaint from the airline, unacceptable behaviour was brought to our attention and I directly raised the issue with our member sports CEOs.

“It’s extremely disappointing but both rugby and football have told me that such behaviour is certainly not acceptable within their sports and have sincerely apologised to the Australian Olympic Team.

“The CEOs have undertaken to take the appropriate action and report back to us.”

Rugby Australia and Football Australia have also revealed they will open their own investigations.

Meanwhile, Australia’s chef de mission Ian Chesterman downplayed his Olympic stars’ damage of their bedrooms – saying it’s easy for ‘big people’ to damage ‘flimsy, temporary walls’.

Chesterman said: “There was a hole in the wall, but that’s pretty easy to do.

“I understand there’s some big people and some very flimsy walls, temporary walls as well.

“I don’t think you had to do much to put a hole in the wall.

“I want to focus on the fact that some people have made a mistake and had left the room in conditions that we thought were unacceptable.

“It was unacceptable because people had to move into those rooms afterwards.

“[But] the rooms were not completely trashed in any way.”

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It’s also claimed the cardboard beds were left damaged on check-out.

On the athletes’ reaction, Chesterman added: “They feel disappointed to have contributed to this conversation about behavioural matters in a team that has been exceptional on and off the field.

“It’s a matter of a small number of people making a mistake and they’re going to have to live with that.”