MELBOURNE chief executive Cameron Schwab says now well-publicised comments made by former major sponsor EnergyWatch Ben Polis were “offensive and repugnant”.

Melbourne’s board held a phone conference on Thursday morning to decide the outcome. Schwab said it didn’t take much consideration.

“It’d be fair to say it was a fairly short phone conference - the decision made to immediately terminate our relationship with EnergyWatch and another company, involved with Ben Polis, Freedom SEO,” he said.

“Clearly the comments are so far outside the expectations and values of our club and our game.

“In the context of the players who play for our club - the club had no choice, but to make the decision that we’ve actually made.

“It’s been a challenging time for our club and quite clearly this is another challenge that we have to face head-on.”

Schwab said the club will confront the financial implications of the termination of the sponsorship, but stressed that “you can put no price on your club’s integrity or organisation’s integrity”.

“The club is actually in the strongest position financially it’s been in for many years,” he said.

“We’re now well and truly debt free and we’ve gone from a club, which was over $5 million in debt to a club, which has an asset base of over $6 million.”