Eddie McGuire has hit back after being denied an exemption to enter Western Australia for this AFL grand final later this month.
Reports emerged on Wednesday claiming the media personality and former Collingwood president had his application to enter the state rejected.
McGuire said he'd been in discussions to host several programmes in WA in the lead up to the grand final and felt his application was a strong one but denied complaining about the decision.
"I think it's unfair. I think I do qualify to be over there for all the things I would have brought," McGuire said on Footy Classified.
"The AFL asked me to be available to go to help bring the fizz and the show business to what was going on. I was happy to do so. I love the football.
"I stay here for the next two weeks and I do my show, I don't care."
Western Australia will be hosting the grand final for the first time after the AFL's biggest game was moved from the MCG for the second year in a row due to COVID-19.
Perth's Optus Stadium won the rights this year after the Gabba held the match in 2020.
McGuire couldn't resist a dig at the state following his snubbing.
"I can understand the situation where they're saying, 'We can't let people who are West Australians come back, so we'll show that we're going to be tough and we'll give Eddie McGuire one,'" he said
"I'm an easy hit, you can have a crack at me and no one has a go back.
"I was going to do half a dozen shows for half a dozen outlets, but more importantly I was doing it in conjunction with the WA government.
"It got knocked on the head by the WA chief commissioner and I go, 'I accept your position', and I move on.
"I haven't complained and I'm not complaining now, I'm explaining. If they want to do that, that's fine and thank god they've only got it for one year."
Reports on Wednesday claimed McGuire had attempted to secure exemptions for his two sons by listing them as producers with his company JAM TV.
The presenter denied this, saying they were involved in earlier plans but an application was never made.
"Disappointingly, my two boys have been dragged into this, who are professional producers on here and Fox Footy," McGuire said.
"The reason they came into play was because there was a smorgasbord- we were going to bring 50 people if we were going to do Millionaire Hot Seat, that got reduced because they weren't going to let that happen and it was too dear to bring it over.
"In the end we thought, 'Don't worry about it,' only one application went in and it was for me, if you want to see it, I've got the application here.
"I was disappointed that came out because they were in-confidence conversations and in the end it was seen to be a bit of big noting against me.
"I went through the process, I made the application, it was declined and I cancelled my flights, I cancelled my hotel and I said nothing more until it got out today."
