Parramatta Eels salary cap scandal: NRL feel Steve Sharp's position untenable
Date
March 13, 2016 - 10:30PM
Chris Barrett
Sports Writer
Parramatta chairman Steve Sharp survived a lengthy weekend board meeting, but there is a growing belief at the Eels and at the NRL that he and deputy chair Tom Issa must fall on their swords in the wake of the latest salary cap scandal to hit the club.
The Eels on Sunday announced they had started their own investigation into a range of allegations that emerged last week and were added to the scope of an NRL inquiry that is centred on third-party arrangements for Anthony Watmough and former star Jarryd Hayne, as revealed by Fairfax Media last month.
The new storm has heaped pressure on Sharp and his chief lieutenant, Issa, a powerful figure behind the scenes at Parramatta, to stand aside, accused of overseeing a regime that allegedly conspired to cheat the cap.
The NRL denies suggestions that heads must roll or competition points will be deducted over the cap breach claims.
But sources say that Sharp and Issa's status as lightning rods for the factional in-fighting in and around the Eels has made their positions virtually untenable, regardless of whether they are able to use their internal investigation to distance themselves from the latest fiasco.
The complicating factor is that League Central also wants no truck with rival factions, among whom are figures suspected of helping make public last week's revelations in an orchestrated and retaliatory campaign to unseat Sharp at May's annual general meeting.
Sharp could not be reached on Sunday but is understood to not have completely dismissed the idea of standing down.
"The club is taking the recent reports very seriously and the board has met at length [on Saturday] to discuss the various matters raised," Eels chief executive John Boulous said in a statement on Sunday.
"We have commenced an internal investigation and are also fully committed to assisting the NRL. To ensure the integrity of these investigations we will not be commenting on the specifics at this stage.
"In my time as CEO and under the direction of the board, the club has acted in good faith with the NRL, and we have overhauled and dramatically improved the club's governance.
"We have done this with the assistance of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which made 117 recommendations for reforming the culture of the club. To date, all 52 mandatory recommendations have been implemented under the agreed plan with the NRL. Other non-mandatory recommendations are also in the process of being implemented."
Meanwhile, an innovative NRL-first third-party sponsorship concept whereby Eels players would be provided registered TPAs by a fan group has been put on ice until the current controversy passes.
Phil Sim, who runs the popular 1Eyed Eel website, had gathered financial pledges from 200 members of his site and created a business plan for an organisation called the One Eyed Coterie that would run independent to the club and pay TPAs to players they identified as ambassadors.
"We were looking to launch in the next couple of weeks," Sim said.
"But we don't want to launch into an environment where there are lots of questions asked about third parties and so forth so the plan would be to let that settle down and let the club work out where it's at and then we'll try and press forward."
Under the plan, players would be paid as ambassadors to engage with supporters.
"We came up with a set of guidelines for the type of players we'd like to support, particularly players who have come through the junior ranks and are seen to be hard-working and represent the Parramatta spirit," Sim said.
"From our perspective the core part of the TPA system is there has to be a business benefit there. Our whole business model is based on that engagement with the players that we hire as ambassadors. To me it represents exactly what a TPA is meant to be about."
