And another article this time my SMH. Surely Sharpe and this incompetent board have to stand down. It's a freaking joke!!
http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-league/pa...-eels-salary-cap-scandal-20160309-gneuwj.html
A potential smoking gun has emerged in the NRL's investigation into a third-party arrangement with Parramatta star Anthony Watmough as the probe into the embattled club widens.
The governing body is aware of damning evidence that Eels officials ignored warnings from a senior club executive that a TPA involving the marquee Manly recruit could be a breach of the salary cap. The development again raises the prospect of Parramatta being docked competition points, while powerbrokers who didn't fully disclose the information to head office - a clear breach of the code of conduct governing administrators - could face serious sanctions, including the sack.
Fairfax Media revealed in February the governing body had launched a probe into Parramatta over payments from two companies of which Stephen Moss - the son of Eels tragic and former Macquarie Bank executive Bill Moss - is the sole director. The issue relates to third-party payments from Scorecube - a wholly owned subsidiary of BlackCitrus - to Watmough that were allegedly not properly disclosed to head office. Former fullback Jarryd Hayne is believed to also be the beneficiary of a similar arrangement. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by either players or their managers.
It's understood then-Eels CFO Ed Farish warned Parramatta powerbrokers they should declare a potential conflict of interest between the entities given BlackCitrus had provided a range of IT services to the club. Salary cap rules forbid firms involved in commercial relationships with clubs to also serve as TPA sponsors. Despite Farish's advice, club officials opted not to alert head office and then signed a statutory declaration last October guaranteeing salary cap compliance.
Farish declined to comment on Wednesday.
The NRL is aware of documents that show some Eels officials were aware of the issues but chose not to act on them.
Just weeks after the club avoided being docked four competition points for breaching all four salary caps in 2014 - the first team to do so - the NRL is investigating a series of fresh payments to Hayne well after he left the club to pursue his NFL dream. News Corp reported five payments to the former Dally M player of $39,000, above and the $52,000 sum Fairfax Media revealed he was paid while also contracted to the San Francisco 49ers. In a further twist, it has emerged the Eels board minuted a desire to furnish TPA sponsors with corporate tickets, again in contravention of the rules that state clubs must be at arm's length to such arrangements.
In addition to Black Citrus, the NRL is also understood to be interested in the Eels' relationships with at least three other entities that have provided services to the club: landscape management company Green Options, menswear outlet Zibara and the Egroup Security firm.
There is no suggestion any of the companies have done anything improper, but League Central is looking into why they were paid highly inflated fees, well above the market rate, for work they did for the Eels.
Leba Zibara of Zibara Clothing and Green Options, which did work on the Eels' training facilities, did not respond to a request for comment. Sami Chamoun, a former league player who runs Egroup, said he had previously been engaged by the Parramatta Leagues Club.
"I haven't done anything with them for about 18 months," he said. "I have never had anything to do with the football club … if there is any [issue] there I'm not aware of it."
There were suggestions that rental assistance provided to former forward Richie Fa'aoso could constitute a salary cap breach. But according to the NRL the issue was declared by the Eels.
Long-suffering Eels fans were hopeful 2016 could mark the end of a three-decade premiership drought after a recruitment spree that netted superstars Kieran Foran, Michael Jennings, Beau Scott and Michael Gordon. But the latest issues raise the spectre of fresh fines and the potential loss of competition points for a club whose board is continually in the news for the wrong reasons.
