Shark player's top-up payments from sponsor under the spotlight
Josh Massoud
The Daily Telegraph
March 10, 2013 11:30PM
CRONULLA's former venue security provider made direct payments to a Sharks player in the belief the arrangement was being properly declared to the NRL.
As salary cap auditor Ian Schubert investigates the payments, The Daily Telegraph can reveal Sharks officials requested E Group Security to top up the salary of a player for the past two years.
The undisclosed figure was paid to the player across 2011 and 2012.
So long as they are correctly disclosed and registered as third-party or marquee deals, such payments are permitted under the NRL salary cap.
The concern is that Sharks officials failed to declare these payments while they were ongoing, with chairman Damian Irvine only contacting Schubert early this year to inform the NRL of a potential oversight.
E Group has also begun moves to sue Cronulla for breach of contract after the club decided not to honour the final two years of their security deal for Sharks Stadium in favour of a rival security firm.
E Group boss Sami Chamoun last night said he was of the belief the player payments were above board.
They were recorded in E Group's security contract as a sponsorship contribution, which the company has honoured and paid to the player on instructions from the club.
"We were asked to provide support for a player and we did so in the natural belief the club would declare it to the NRL," Chamoun said. "I can't say whether or not that was done because that's the club's responsibility, not ours."
Cronulla last night released a statement that described the wrangle as a "small paperwork issue".
"The Sharks informed the salary cap auditor of a small paperwork issue relating to a third-party agreement," the Cronulla club statement read. When contacted before last night's kick-off, Irvine angrily denied there was any substantial issue at hand.
And when pressed about direct player payments from sponsors, he refused to comment about the Sharks and abruptly hung up.
The NRL yesterday confirmed that Schubert was investigating the payments.
