THE Parramatta Eels board and senior executives have overseen a culture of breaching salary cap rules by rewarding players’ third-party sponsors with corporate boxes, explosive internal documents suggest.
Confidential board minutes from 2014 obtained by The Daily Telegraph show there was active discussion at the highest levels of the club about providing rewards — most notably free and fully catered corporate hospitality — to the third parties.
There are also revelations that tens of thousands of dollars in payments were made to departed star Jarryd Hayne by a Parramatta official last year, well after he left the club to join the San Francisco 49ers NFL team.
It is understood that corporate hospitality at the Eels’ home ground, Pirtek Stadium, is valued at up to $300 a head — meaning any third party given the benefit of this over the course of a season could reap a benefit worth thousands of dollars.
When The Telegraph put the allegations to Mr Sharp yesterday he said the minutes could have been “doctored”, before later appearing to back down on the claim.
Eels communications chief Josh Drayton later emailed a further comment: “The club denies these allegations show impropriety or wrongdoing in relation to the salary cap.”
The NRL’s official rules regarding salary cap on its website state: “Many players have third-party agreements that are outside the salary cap” but these must not “become a way for clubs or players to use sponsors or third parties to undermine the salary cap”.
The Eels have already paid a $465,000 fine for salary cap breaches in 2014 and ran the risk of having four points *deducted for the 2016 season unless governance was fixed.
A deal with the NRL on this matter is still being finalised.
The Telegraph has obtained documents detailing five separate bank transfers to Hayne from an unnamed Parramatta football club representative totalling $39,000, well after Hayne left the club.
The 2014 boardroom documents, which were signed by club chairman Steve Sharp, state “the importance of servicing TPA (Third Party Agreement) providers accordingly with hospitality and player appearances”.
Any legitimate third-party payments to players must be on an arm’s length basis from the club. It is a breach of the salary cap rules if a club makes a payment on behalf of the third parties or does a deal to compensate companies for a third-party contract.
Bank statements detail five payments were made between January 27 and February 26, 2015 by a Parramatta official into Hayne’s account, including three individual payments of $10,000.
The Daily Telegraph is not suggesting that Hayne has done anything wrong. An Eels spokesman had no comment.
