Max Donnelly proposes strict new rules for Eels board
Eels administrator Max Donnelly is planning to do himself out of a job
Parramatta Eels chairman and administrator Max Donnelly says he plans to “do myself out of a job” by next March — all part of a move to introduce the strictest rules ever seen in the NRL for incoming directors, which he will outline today.
The measures come in the wake of the Eels’ salary cap scandal last year, first revealed by News Corp newspapers, which became one of the biggest scandals in Australian sport.
The Australian can reveal that Donnelly will today send a letter to members urging them to approve a host of stringent hurdles for anyone planning to become a director of either the Eels or its parent company, the Parramatta Leagues Club.
In an interview yesterday, Donnelly said: “Whatever has gone on in the past cannot be repeated. It’s a strange thing — I’m actually putting this resolution up to do myself out of a job. I plan to step down as chairman of the football club (the Eels) before the next football season.”
Donnelly is also planning to have a full board appointed at the Parramatta Leagues Club by next year, subject to the new set of tough rules at both the parent company and the Eels.
To become Parramatta directors, candidates would need to:
Pass the Australian Institute of Company Directors course on the obligations, ethics and other requirements of board members;
Have no adverse findings from the NSW clubs regulator, the independent Liquor and Gaming Authority;
Undergo police, bankruptcy and Australian Securities and Investments Commission checks to ensure unblemished records;
Not have any commercial dealings with the Leagues Club or Eels “beyond certain thresholds”.
Satisfy a “skills matrix”;
Never have been a Parramatta director before July 19, 2016.
Donnelly has urged Parramatta members to attend an extraordinary general meeting of the Parramatta Leagues Club on September 13 to be held at Sydney’s Rosehill Racecourse to approve the measures, which require a 75 per cent majority vote by the club’s members to go through.
“This is one of the most important events in the history of the Parramatta Leagues Club — and as the PLC owns the Eels, it is also one of the most important in the history of the Eels,” Donnelly said.
The Parramatta Leagues Club is a cash-generating machine that makes revenues of close to $80 million a year.
It has been subsidising the Eels for record amounts in recent years. In 2016, the Eels made a $12m loss, the largest single-year loss in the history of the NRL, amid revelations that the football club had been conducting industrial-scale cheating of the salary cap through the use of fraudulent invoices and contracts.
The scandal saw the intervention of the NSW Government to ensure the sacking of the boards of both the Eels and the Leagues Club.
In the wake of the Eels’ disgrace in 2016, Donnelly said he is also planning to impose much more stringent checks and balances on directors of both Parramatta clubs in the future.
In his letter to Parramatta members to be sent today, he will propose an “annual review” of the performance of directors “to ensure better accountability and transparency”.
The club’s directors handbook will also set out strict “protocols” for attendance at meetings and the maintenance of “confidentiality of information”.
As one further measure, Donnelly will introduce a “nominations committee” at the club, which he said would be put in place to ensure candidates for directorships in the future would have “appropriate” skills to best serve the club.
The measures are part of a new draft constitution which Donnelly has put together, all designed to ensure the events of last year never happen again.
Asked what he would do if he is not able to get the measures approved, Donnelly quipped: “If I lose the vote, I have no idea when I’m retiring. This is best corporate practice for the club. It is arguably the perfect model — every club should have this model.”
Donnelly is planning to appoint the first leagues club board himself if the constitutional change is approved, with the first elections to be held in 2019.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...d/news-story/30b4ef6433df06650952206cb59588f3
