David Bird
02-03-06, 12:57 PM
PLAYERS face fines, suspensions and the deregistration of their contracts if found to be involved in salary cap rorts under a crackdown endorsed by NRL clubs.
The move to take stronger action over cap breaches, which also includes stripping player agents of their accreditation, was proposed at yesterday's meeting of club chief executives and follows the deduction of four points and a $430,000 fine imposed on the Warriors this week for exceeding the $3.36 million ceiling for player payments in 2004 and 2005.
The Warriors have announced they will challenge the severity of the penalty, with chief executive Wayne Scurrah last night telling the Herald the docking of points was unfair on the club's players as they had done nothing wrong. But his South Sydney counterpart Shane Richardson said that was not the public perception.
While wanting to make it clear that he was not referring specifically to the Warriors case, Richardson said he believed players should be held accountable if they were receiving any additional payments not declared in their contract registered with the NRL and proposed the wider-reaching sanctions at the CEOs' meeting.
"There is not a member of the public that thinks when there is a salary cap rort that the players don't know anything about it," Richardson said. "I'm not trying to single out the Warriors, I'm talking generally, but people are very naive if they think that doesn't happen. The players are responsible and they should be held responsible for it.
"As club CEOs we sign a statutory declaration every year but the players sign a contract that says exactly what their situation is, so if a player is found to be cheating the salary cap he should be penalised as well."
The proposed crackdown received strong support from club chief executives, who unanimously backed the maintaining of the salary cap by the NRL.
NRL chief executive David Gallop said the league had the power to take action against players over salary cap rorts under the collective bargaining agreement negotiated with the players' association in 2004 and said the range of penalties included fines, suspensions or deregistration.
"At this stage, we have decided to impose a penalty on the club as the party primarily responsible to the league for complying with the salary cap rules," Gallop said. "However, we took a hard look at the role of players and managers and certainly expect the agent accreditation committee to investigate further whether action is necessary against the agents.
"In respect of players, all players should know that the collective bargaining agreement allows for action against players if the circumstances warrant it."
With the focus in the Warriors' cap breach having been on a $150,000 three-year coaching or development role guaranteed to New Zealand captain Ruben Wiki when he retires, the meeting of chief executives also discussed the need to maintain existing guidelines concerning post-football employment options.
Richardson said: "Everyone in this game is working towards promoting off-field education and employment opportunities. Clubs will always value players once they retire but everyone also understands how the salary cap auditor can determine when a rort is a rort in terms of promising income and spreading payments into retirement."
St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust said he had spoken to former Dragons star Lance Thompson about a future coaching job when he took a pay cut to help the club retain off-contract stars in 2004, but denied it was ever included in his contract. "I spoke to Lance lots of times about life after football and in coaching in particular but at the end of the day we terminated our agreement in 2005 based on a deed of agreement that was registered with the salary cap auditor and I just wish that we would all move on," Doust said.
"Especially with long-term players, it's not an unusual thing to discuss. There's many examples in the game where players are rightfully re-employed. Nathan Brown retired and was re-employed by us, and Parramatta did the same thing with Jason Taylor. It's not a big deal if it's done the right way."
Former Warriors prop Karl Temata has said he was told the club had salary cap problems at last year's presentation night in September. Temata said Warriors football director John Hart told him the club was unable to offer him a new contract.
By Brad Walter
March 2, 2006
Source (http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/players-face-salary-cap-crackdown/2006/03/01/1141191731862.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)
The move to take stronger action over cap breaches, which also includes stripping player agents of their accreditation, was proposed at yesterday's meeting of club chief executives and follows the deduction of four points and a $430,000 fine imposed on the Warriors this week for exceeding the $3.36 million ceiling for player payments in 2004 and 2005.
The Warriors have announced they will challenge the severity of the penalty, with chief executive Wayne Scurrah last night telling the Herald the docking of points was unfair on the club's players as they had done nothing wrong. But his South Sydney counterpart Shane Richardson said that was not the public perception.
While wanting to make it clear that he was not referring specifically to the Warriors case, Richardson said he believed players should be held accountable if they were receiving any additional payments not declared in their contract registered with the NRL and proposed the wider-reaching sanctions at the CEOs' meeting.
"There is not a member of the public that thinks when there is a salary cap rort that the players don't know anything about it," Richardson said. "I'm not trying to single out the Warriors, I'm talking generally, but people are very naive if they think that doesn't happen. The players are responsible and they should be held responsible for it.
"As club CEOs we sign a statutory declaration every year but the players sign a contract that says exactly what their situation is, so if a player is found to be cheating the salary cap he should be penalised as well."
The proposed crackdown received strong support from club chief executives, who unanimously backed the maintaining of the salary cap by the NRL.
NRL chief executive David Gallop said the league had the power to take action against players over salary cap rorts under the collective bargaining agreement negotiated with the players' association in 2004 and said the range of penalties included fines, suspensions or deregistration.
"At this stage, we have decided to impose a penalty on the club as the party primarily responsible to the league for complying with the salary cap rules," Gallop said. "However, we took a hard look at the role of players and managers and certainly expect the agent accreditation committee to investigate further whether action is necessary against the agents.
"In respect of players, all players should know that the collective bargaining agreement allows for action against players if the circumstances warrant it."
With the focus in the Warriors' cap breach having been on a $150,000 three-year coaching or development role guaranteed to New Zealand captain Ruben Wiki when he retires, the meeting of chief executives also discussed the need to maintain existing guidelines concerning post-football employment options.
Richardson said: "Everyone in this game is working towards promoting off-field education and employment opportunities. Clubs will always value players once they retire but everyone also understands how the salary cap auditor can determine when a rort is a rort in terms of promising income and spreading payments into retirement."
St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust said he had spoken to former Dragons star Lance Thompson about a future coaching job when he took a pay cut to help the club retain off-contract stars in 2004, but denied it was ever included in his contract. "I spoke to Lance lots of times about life after football and in coaching in particular but at the end of the day we terminated our agreement in 2005 based on a deed of agreement that was registered with the salary cap auditor and I just wish that we would all move on," Doust said.
"Especially with long-term players, it's not an unusual thing to discuss. There's many examples in the game where players are rightfully re-employed. Nathan Brown retired and was re-employed by us, and Parramatta did the same thing with Jason Taylor. It's not a big deal if it's done the right way."
Former Warriors prop Karl Temata has said he was told the club had salary cap problems at last year's presentation night in September. Temata said Warriors football director John Hart told him the club was unable to offer him a new contract.
By Brad Walter
March 2, 2006
Source (http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/players-face-salary-cap-crackdown/2006/03/01/1141191731862.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)