. Bill Moss, the former Macquarie Bank high flyer whose nomination as an independent to the Parramatta board was shot down in flames, says the vote-rigging revelations encircling the Eels "makes you wonder what else has been going on" at the club.
The Parramatta Leagues Club and NRL board convened for an unscheduled meeting on Friday, the day the Herald published claims linking former chairman Roy Spagnolo and former group chief executive Bob Bentley to the fraudulent issuing of memberships in the lead-up to last year's club elections.
It has also emerged that other former directors are also under the microscope of an Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing investigation over allegations of activity, unrelated to the membership tampering scheme, that contravenes the Registered Clubs Act and the Clubs NSW code of practice.
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The findings of that inquiry could result in the ex-directors not only facing possible sanctions from the industry regulator but disciplinary action from Parramatta that could extend to them being expelled from the club.
Moss, a financial heavyweight and ardent Parramatta supporter who was snubbed by Eels members at the club's annual general meeting in May, said the uncovering of widespread backdating of memberships in the weeks before last year's election helped explain the farcical events of the AGM.
The elevation of a figure of Moss' calibre to the board had seemed a no-brainer but the resolution for an independent director to be added to the Parramatta board, an initiative of chairman Steve Sharp, fell victim to factional opposition not to mention heckling. Extraordinarily, even a bid to introduce a code of conduct for directors bit the dust.
With at least 46 unauthorised members in the room that night — many of them unfamiliar faces not seen before at the club — and 75 per cent approval needed for resolutions to pass, Sharp did not have the numbers.
"It probably does explain a lot of the AGM, although to prove that you'd have to match who turned up at the AGM and is it these people and how many of them and how many voted? But it could well explain the events of the AGM," Moss said. "I've never known a code of conduct to be voted down
"It's disappointing. When you see this going on, it makes you wonder what else has been going on."
The gamesmanship behind the scenes has continued at Parramatta this week, with the laughable scenario of Sharp's PLC and NRL board and Spagnolo's Parramatta District Rugby League board jostling to have a meeting before one another.
Friday's PLC get-together was originally set down for next Wednesday but was brought forward this week when Spagnolo fast-tracked the next meeting of the body he chairs from late next week to next Monday.
The reason for the race to sit first was believed to be Spagnolo's desire to nominate PDRL director and ally Lyn Wallace to the more prominent PLC board as soon as possible, a move that complies with the club's complicated constitution. With another month now until the next meeting of PLC directors sources say Wallace's ascension could come unstuck if, as is being anticipated, OLGR chooses to file a complaint against the Eels' former administration in the coming weeks.
It is a messy situation that Moss believes can be alleviated in the long run by Sharp's push for constitutional reform at the Eels.
"He is actually someone who is trying to reform the club both on and off the field," Moss said. "He's the guy that's been pushing for an independent director and a code of conduct and this is just showing that where he's been pushing is where the club should go."
