Expert
The NRL have confirmed the Cronulla Sharks are under the salary cap in 2018 and the NRL finals won’t be impacted by ongoing investigations.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, NRL CEO Todd Greenberg stated the Sharks were well under the salary cap this year.
“On the information available to us, every club in the NRL (and that includes the Sharks) are cap compliant this year. In fact, the Sharks are significantly below the salary cap – and I’m talking more than half-a-million dollars.” said Greenberg.
Greenberg also confirmed the breach of the salary cap was self-reported by the club and not a case of ‘systematic cheating,’ as we have seen in previous examples.
The boss of the NRL also said that while the investigation of the Sharks on the alleged breach of cap goes back some years, but when quizzed by a reporter, said it was less than five.
Greenberg also said the breach of salary cap by Cronulla was not on the scale we have seen previously.
“This is not on the scale of previous salary cap investigations at clubs like Manly, Parramatta or the Melbourne Storm,” Greenberg said during his press conference.
The news of the breach originally broke on Tuesday evening, with revelations the NRL were investigating the club.
Greenberg and the NRL couldn’t put a timeframe on exactly when the investigation into Cronulla would be finished though because they aren’t sure how long it will take.
Cronulla will take on the Canterbury Bulldogs in Round 25 of the NRL season as they try to wrap up a top-four spot ahead of the NRL finals.