Beardo and Baldo at war
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...a/news-story/23e2a4b6797ea112d822366939333ddc
Rugby league’s two top figures at odds over latest funding drama
The two senior figures in rugby league disagree over how to address the code’s latest funding row, with ARLC chairman John Grant coming under renewed pressure to keep his job.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said yesterday the issue was one for the governing body to solve, while at the same time Grant has put the onus on the clubs to help find solutions to the impasse.
The clubs are privately seething at being “short-changed” by the NRL after the funding issue was slugged out between parties last November and December. That fight eventually restored a commitment made a year earlier by Grant and the NRL to confirm club grants at 130 per cent of the salary cap from 2018, to a maximum of $13 million a club.
But the clubs were told on Wednesday that due to a cashflow problem, next year’s grant might be $11.5m.
Greenberg offered solutions such as the NRL organising a bridging loan, or asking stakeholders to bring forward payments owed to the NRL.
“First thing I’d say, it was a very productive meeting with the CEOs over a range of issues,” Greenberg said yesterday.
“It is very clear there will be a cashflow issue for us to deal with.
“The solution rests with us. I’m trying to put forward some proposals. It was exactly what I said on Wednesday and it’s exactly what I’ve been doing today.”
Grant was not at the clubs’ meeting but said he thought it was a shared responsibility between the clubs and the NRL.
“I don’t see it as a funding shortfall,” Grant said. “We’ve got an acknowledged issue with the NRL’s cashflow. That primarily exists because the advances we’ve had from broadcasters have been paid to clubs.
“So we need to manage our way through this. The ‘we’ meaning us and the clubs need to manage this. No doubt we’ll get a resolution. We have to get a resolution.”
Clubs are not taking kindly to being squeezed.
“Clubs find that unacceptable. The clubs are questioning not just the financial intelligence but the emotional intelligence of the NRL,” one official said.
The issue has resurrected the push to end John Grant’s tenure as ARLC chairman.
A club official said yesterday that NRL clubs were “sick of being treated like mugs”.
“Grant is a nice guy and all, but we need to get some fresh commissioners in there to start running it as a business. They’ve had losses for three years in a row. So under his watch we’ve stumbled from one crisis to another,” the official said.
