Manly Sea Eagles salary cap: NRL hands down punishment
Phil Rothfield, The Daily Telegraph
4-5 minutes
THE Manly Sea Eagles have been fined $750,000 and former general manager Bob Fulton is facing a ban from being an Australian selector for salary cap rorting over the last five years.
The NRL found the Sea Eagles had made payments if $1.5 million outside cap rules after a nine-month investigation of phone and computer records.
In other punishments handed down by NRL CEO Todd Greenberg:
• The Manly Sea Eagles will have to play $330,000 under the cap for 2018 and 2019
• Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett will get an official warning
• Bob Fulton will not be allowed to continue as a Kangaroos selector
• Roosters CEO Joe Kelly, the former Manly boss, has been suspended for nine months
• Manly Sea Eagles chief operating officer Neil Bare has been suspended for 12 months
• Manly has been fined $750,000, with $250,000 suspended if the club undertakes appropriate governance changes to ensure there is no repeat of the breaches.
The NRL said the Sea Eagles had been fined $750,000 for breaches spanning the last five years.
Greenberg said an investigation by the NRL’s integrity unit had uncovered evidence of deliberate breaches of the cap.
“The investigation found a number of cases where players were offered undisclosed benefits outside the salary cap to attract them to the club,” Greenberg said.
“These benefits were in the form of third party agreements which were never declared to the salary cap auditor.
“In other words, Manly had a financial advantage in securing the services of players who may otherwise have gone to other clubs.
“Our salary cap is the main reason we have the closest competition in Australian sport and we will not tolerate any attempt to breach it.
“Every club needs to be aware that any attempt to cheat the salary cap will eventually be detected and the club involved will be heavily sanctioned.”
Manly invited the NRL to conduct a salary cap review in July 2017.
The ensuing investigation reviewed more than 800,000 documents, emails and text messages and other data from the phones and computers of club officials.
In addition, numerous current and former officials and players were interviewed.
There were no findings of wrong-doing by the providers of third party agreements to Manly players. Instead the club breached its obligations under the NRL rules in relation to those agreements.
Fulton quit his role as general manager of the Sea Eagles one month into the investigation.
He was not interviewed by the integrity unit.
As he is not a registered official, the NRL was powerless to hand down a penalty.
But Greenberg made it clear he would not be considered as an Australian selector.
Evidence was uncovered from his phone of his involvement in most contract negotiations.
Greenberg said the club was currently cap compliant and no competition points would be deducted.
“We have to ensure the penalties for cheating the cap remain a deterrent,” he said.
“We have had such a successful start to the 2018 season that every fan from every club can reasonably expect their team to play in the finals.
“So we make no apology for taking a hard stance against breaches of the cap — it is something we will continue to be vigilant in protecting.”
Manly and each club official has the right to appeal the matter to the NRL Appeals Committee.
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