- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The South Sydney Rabbitohs have been fined $20,000 by the NRL integrity unit following the code’s investigation into Arizona incident involving John Sutton and Luke Burgess in November, though the players will not miss any matches.
Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Young said that while Rabbitohs met their obligations to the NRL Integrity Unit by notifying them of the matter, the club failed to follow through with its duty. This included the club’s failure to notify the NRL of the fact that Luke Burgess reached an agreement to pay compensation to the security guard involved, leading to the charges being dropped
Failure to disclose this relevant information led to the fine.
Young also conceded the initial investigation could have been handled much more effectively by the Integrity Unit.
The NRL found that the Rabbitohs had sufficiently disciplined Burgess and Sutton and there would be no further punishments handed down to the players.
Ms Young said evidence to the investigation did not prove any South Sydney official, including the CEO at the time of the incident and new NRL employee, Shane Richardson, knew that the security guard had been paid.
The NRL insisted that a “compromise agreement” is a legally acceptable way of dealing with offences in Arizona.
“I should stress that the Integrity Unit relies on the clubs to provide reliable and accurate information about any incidents involving their players,” Young said.
“If clubs withhold information or fail to disclose the full details they face sanctions – as we have seen in this case.”
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.